Portrait of the Isaac Potts Family
Artist
Unknown
CultureAmerican
Dateca. 1810
MediumOil on canvas
Dimensions18 3/4 x 23 5/8 in. (47.6 x 60 cm)
Overall, Frame: 22 x 26 3/4 in. (55.9 x 67.9 cm)
Overall, Frame: 22 x 26 3/4 in. (55.9 x 67.9 cm)
InscribedNot signed or dated
Credit LineGift of Edgar William and Bernice Chrysler Garbisch
Object number78.633.11
Not on view
DescriptionOil on canvas, mounted on board (possibly masonite?) painting. It is a domestic family portrait in the spirit of a traditional conversation piece. On the left, the mother steadies the youngest child: a girl with a white dress and matching bonnet stands on a chair while playing a small drum. Near the center in the foreground, the young boy races across the room with a rolling hoop, trundling with the dowel in one hand and holding his black hat in the other. The eldest child, a young girl with red hair wearing the same white dress as her sister, receives a new bonnet from her father. In her right hand she holds a jumping rope; her old bonnet is lying on the ground as she accepts the new bonnet with the left hand. The father is at the far right of the canvas, and one hand leans on a wooden desk. Above the father's head a dark green drapery is pulled back. On the paneled rear wall, two brass drapery knobs flank a landscape painting of a bridge over water.Label TextUnknown American 19th century Portrait of the Isaac Potts Family, ca. 1810 Oil on canvas Gift of Edgar William and Bernice Chrysler Garbisch 78.633.11 Despite its small size and simple composition, the Potts family portrait delightfully evokes the pleasures of family life in the early nineteenth century. Working at a standup desk at right, the father turns to offer his daughter a new bonnet -her old one lies forgotten on the floor. The mother attends to the youngest child at left. On the wall behind them is a tiny religious landscape showing a pilgrim leading a heavily laden donkey. The little picture-within-a-picture reminds the viewer that the virtues of diligence and piety are qualities required for a happy, prosperous domestic life. This type of informal portrayal of a family at home is called a "conversation piece." It was a popular format for group portraits in the first decades of the nineteenth century, just before the invention of photography. ProvenancePossibly Pennsylvania; O. Rundle Gilbert, auction, 1971; Purchased by Colonel Edgar William and Bernice Chrysler Garbisch, 1971; Gift of Edgar William and Bernice Chrysler Garbisch, 1978. Exhibition History"Behind the Seen: The Chrysler's Hidden Museum," Large Changing Gallery, Chrysler Museum of Art, Norfolk, Va., October 21, 2005 - February 19, 2006. "Reopening of the Joan P. Brock Galleries," Chrysler Museum of Art, Norfolk, Va., Opening in March of 2008. Published ReferencesGeneral reference: Deborah Chotner, with contributions by Julie Aronson, Sarah D. Cash, and Laurie Weitzenkorn, _American Naïve Paintings_ (Washington: National Gallery of Art, 1992). ISBN: 0521443016, 0894681737 General reference: Nina Fletcher Little, "The Conversation Piece in American Folk Art," _Antiques_ XCIV, no. 5 (November 1968): 744-749. Martha N. Hagood and Jefferson C. Harrison, _American Art at the Chrysler Museum: Selected Paintings, Sculpture, and Drawings_ (Norfolk, Va.: Chrysler Museum of Art, 2005), 32-33, no. 11. ISBN: 0-940744-71-6
