Past Exhibition

Deacon Peckham's Hobby Horse

Two children with pale, peachy skin stand and sit on a rocking horse in a wallpapered interior in this square painting. Both children have short, honey-brown hair, high foreheads, dark blue eyes, and small, rounded noses. Their cheeks are smooth and the corners of their thin, pale pink lips curl slightly up. Both wear dresses with puffy, elbow-length sleeves, white collars, calf-length skirts, and wide, white pantaloons over white stockings. At the center of the composition, one child sits astride the rocking horse, which faces our right in profile. The skirt of the forest-green dress splits at the waist to fall open on either side of a white garment underneath. That child’s head turns back over one shoulder to look down and to our left. One black shoe rests in a stirrup, and the child holds a riding crop in one hand. The horse is dappled with fawn brown and white, and has a parchment-brown mane and tail. The horse’s eye we can see is black and its red mouth is open around the bridle and reins. The second child stands at the back of the rocking horse, hands resting on the crossbar that connects the toy's long, curving rockers. That child wears a crimson-red dress and holds the red ribbon of a straw bonnet in one hand. The hair is parted down the middle and that child looks at us. A black cap with a curved, shiny visor and tassels hanging from the crown rests on the base of the rocking horse. The rug has a stylized, terracotta-orange floral pattern against a pine-green background. The wall behind the children is striped with wide bands of golden yellow and moss green. A door with a gold-colored doorknob is swung inward to our left, behind the child in red, to reveal the profile of a staircase beyond. To our right, just behind the horse’s head, a wooden table is draped with a cloth patterned with vines and leaves in dark green against a pea-green background. A lamp with a tall, spindly brass base is topped with a squat, round white globe. A folded newspaper behind the child in green could rest on the table, or could be held by that child. An inscription on the masthead of the paper begins, “Dai.”
Robert Peckham, The Hobby Horse, c. 1840, oil on canvas, Gift of Edgar William and Bernice Chrysler Garbisch, 1955.11.23

Details

  • Dates

    -

  • Locations

    East Building, Ground Floor, Northeast
Two children with pale, peachy skin stand and sit on a rocking horse in a wallpapered interior in this square painting. Both children have short, honey-brown hair, high foreheads, dark blue eyes, and small, rounded noses. Their cheeks are smooth and the corners of their thin, pale pink lips curl slightly up. Both wear dresses with puffy, elbow-length sleeves, white collars, calf-length skirts, and wide, white pantaloons over white stockings. At the center of the composition, one child sits astride the rocking horse, which faces our right in profile. The skirt of the forest-green dress splits at the waist to fall open on either side of a white garment underneath. That child’s head turns back over one shoulder to look down and to our left. One black shoe rests in a stirrup, and the child holds a riding crop in one hand. The horse is dappled with fawn brown and white, and has a parchment-brown mane and tail. The horse’s eye we can see is black and its red mouth is open around the bridle and reins. The second child stands at the back of the rocking horse, hands resting on the crossbar that connects the toy's long, curving rockers. That child wears a crimson-red dress and holds the red ribbon of a straw bonnet in one hand. The hair is parted down the middle and that child looks at us. A black cap with a curved, shiny visor and tassels hanging from the crown rests on the base of the rocking horse. The rug has a stylized, terracotta-orange floral pattern against a pine-green background. The wall behind the children is striped with wide bands of golden yellow and moss green. A door with a gold-colored doorknob is swung inward to our left, behind the child in red, to reveal the profile of a staircase beyond. To our right, just behind the horse’s head, a wooden table is draped with a cloth patterned with vines and leaves in dark green against a pea-green background. A lamp with a tall, spindly brass base is topped with a squat, round white globe. A folded newspaper behind the child in green could rest on the table, or could be held by that child. An inscription on the masthead of the paper begins, “Dai.”
Robert Peckham, The Hobby Horse, c. 1840, oil on canvas, Gift of Edgar William and Bernice Chrysler Garbisch, 1955.11.23

Overview: One of the most intriguing and often-reproduced American paintings in the collection of the National Gallery of Art—Deacon Robert Peckham's The Hobby Horse (c. 1840)—is the inspiration for this focus exhibition of nine children's portraits created for patrons among a newly thriving class of Massachusetts merchants and manufacturers in the mid-1800s. The works will be displayed along with a hide-covered rocking horse similar to the one Peckham (1785–1877) depicted in his painting.

Organization: Organized by the National Gallery of Art, Washington.

Attendance: 77,549

Brochure: Deacon Peckham’s Hobby Horse. Washington, D.C.: National Gallery of Art, 2012 by Deborah Chotner.

You may also like

Two men on logs surrounded by the rapids of the Hudson River with green trees on both sides and a blue sky with white puffy clouds.

Exhibition:  American Landscapes in Watercolor from the Corcoran Collection

Kwame Brathwaite's photograph of a young woman, Untitled (Portrait, Reels as Necklace), c. 1972

Exhibition:  Photography and the Black Arts Movement, 1955–1985