Portrait of Cynthia Mary Osborn

Maker Samuel Miller (American, 1807 - 1853)

Collections

Jonathan and Karin Fielding Collection

ClassificationsPAINTINGS

Dateca. 1843

Mediumoil on canvas

Dimensionsframe: 58 x 36 x 3 in. (147.3 x 91.4 x 7.6 cm.) frame opening: 49 × 26 5/8 in. (124.5 × 67.6 cm.)

DescriptionStanding full length in front of a large red gate and holding a hoop and stick in hand. She is wearing a pink dress with pleating and lace trim at the sleeves and collar as well as lace decorated pantaloons.

Credit LineJonathan and Karin Fielding Collection

Status

On view

Label TextIn mid-19th-century New England, one in four children could be expected to die in infancy, and one in three before adulthood. It comes as little surprise, then, that many parents commissioned posthumous portraits to commemorate their beloved children. Of the 17 portraits attributed to Boston-based painter Samuel Miller, 14 are of children, and several contain Christian symbols of the afterlife, suggesting that they were painted posthumously, including this painting of Cynthia Osborn, who died in 1842 at the age of eight. Besides her gesture of plucking a rose (symbol of a life cut short), the presence of a goldfinch (symbol of the Resurrection), and the hoop she holds (a common toy that, in this context, may signify eternal life), Cynthia stands in front of a curious red gate, perhaps inspired by a line from Philip P. Cooke's popular poem, "Life in the Autumn Woods" (1843): "the lark at heaven's red gate / Soars joyously singing."

Object numberL2015.41.170