Little Miss Fairfield

1850

William Matthew Prior

Artist, American, 1806 - 1873

A young, round-cheeked, pale-skinned child wears a red dress and sits in front of a landscape in this vertical portrait painting. Her dark blond hair is parted down the middle and pulled to the sides to make ear-length ringlets that frame her square face. She has faint, arched brows, wide-set, large blue eyes, a tiny nose, and a bow-shaped mouth over a bulb-like chin. The garnet-red dress is patterned with rows of tiny black dots. The bodice has a straight neckline and slate-blue bows over short sleeves. The child’s pink stockings and black shoes tied with bows peek out from the long hem of the skirt, where one foot kicks up and the other points toes down as if swinging her feet back and forth. She gently holds a toy rabbit, which has gray fur, pink eyes, and a pink collar, with one hand in her lap. The other hand cups lightly against her chest. A burgundy-red curtain hangs behind her, filling the top third of the background. A tan-colored column, wider than the girl’s shoulders, is immediately behind the curtain, and trees and shrubs reach into the distance under a pink-streaked blue sky.

Media Options

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Artwork overview

Artwork history & notes

Provenance

Recorded as from Pennsylvania. (Leon F.S. Stark, Philadelphia); sold 1969 to Edgar William and Bernice Chrysler Garbisch; gift 1971 to NGA.

Associated Names

Exhibition History

1978

  • The American Folk Art Tradition: Paintings from the Garbisch Collection, National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., 1978.

1980

  • Small Folk: A Celebration of Childhood in America, organized by Museum of American Folk Art, NGA loans shown at The New-York Historical Society, New York, 1980-1981, no. 219, color repro. (cat. by Sandra Brant and Elissa Cullman).

1981

  • American Naive Paintings from the National Gallery of Art, Terra Museum of American Art, Evanston, Illinois, 1981-1982, no. 1, color repro. on cover (cat. by Ronald McKnight Melvin).

1985

  • American Naive Paintings from the National Gallery of Art, traveling exh. by the International Exhibitions Foundation, Washington, 1985-1987, no. 50, color repro. Fist venue: Museum of American Folk Art, New York.

1988

  • La Nascita di Una Nazione: Pittori americani dalla National Gallery of Art di Washington 1730-1880, Palazzo Pepoli Campogrande, Bologna; Galleria Internazionale d'Arte Moderna di Ca'Pesaro, Venice, 1988-1989, no. 50, repro.

2012

  • Artist and Visionary: William Matthew Prior Revealed, Fenimore Art Museum, New York State Historical Association, Cooperstown; American Folk Art Museum, New York, 2012, no. 39, repro.

Bibliography

1980

  • American Paintings: An Illustrated Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1980: 213, repro.

1983

  • Wertzenkorn, Laurie. "The Garbisch Collection at the National Gallery of Art." Antiques (September 1983): 486-491, pl. 3.

1991

  • Kopper, Philip. America's National Gallery of Art: A Gift to the Nation. New York, 1991: 291, color repro.

1992

  • Chotner, Deborah, with contributions by Julie Aronson, Sarah D. Cash, and Laurie Weitzenkorn. American Naive Paintings. The Collections of the National Gallery of Art Systematic Catalogue. Washington, D.C., 1992: 301, 304, color repro. 303.

  • American Paintings: An Illustrated Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1992: 267, repro.

Inscriptions

on reverse (no longer visible, photograph in NGA curatorial files): Child of Fairfield, Esqr. By W. M. Prior, Jan. 1850; 36 Trenton St.

Wikidata ID

Q20187977

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