Portrait of a Girl with Flowers

Artist Arthur Bowen Davies American, 1862 - 1928

Daten.d.

MediumOil on canvas

DimensionsStretcher: 15 3/16 x 8 in. (38.6 x 20.3 cm)
Frame Dimensions: 18 1/8 x 11 1/8 in. (46 x 28.3 cm)

ClassificationsPaintings

Credit LineGift of Mary H. Beeman to the Pruyn Family Collection

Object number1995.3.1

On View

On view

Collections

American Paintings & Sculpture

InscribedThere is a pencil inscription on the verso of the upper stretcher member,"Portrait child and flower/ Arthur B. Davies/Collection _______ Price". The last line appears to be either "F.Newlin" or possible "Frederic" as Frederic Newlin Price was a gallery owner and sold Davies' work. On right stretcher bar, upper corner "6259/f" . See NOTES for discussion of the possiblility of the subject being one of the Davies' nieces. There is also a large, white, chalk inscription on the stretcher, left (fr the verso):"Mrs Beeman"

DescriptionProfile portrait, slightly more than half-length, of a young girl with red hair. She wears a dark dress with a thin, white ruffled collar. Her hair is long and appears to be fairly loose down her back to mid-shoulder, although it is gathered to the degree that we see the side of her neck There is a grey plinth/bar along the lower image area with three small flowers lying on it. They are a whitish color with five petals, possibly violets or pansies (see Notes).The bar is reminiscent of a renaissance model tht creates a window-like enframement within the frame and is used for profile portraits such as this. The interest in a red-haired female subject may be a legacy of the pre-Raphaelites.

Possibly a portrait of Lucy Betts, one of Davies' nieces.Exhibition History"50 at 50: Five Decades of Collecting at the Hyde". Wood Gallery, Education Wing, Hyde House, The Hyde Collection. Glens Falls, January 16, 2013 -April 14, 2013ProvenanceNew York, NY, Frederic Price (?)
Glens Falls, NY, Mrs. Nell P. Cunningham (?)
1962, Queensbury, NY, Mary Hoopes Beeman
1995, Glens Falls, NY, The Hyde Collection Trust (by bequest)