Who painted Mrs. John Harrisson and Daughter?

Mrs. John Harrisson and Daughter was painted by Frederick W. Mayhew in 1823.

Where can I see Mrs. John Harrisson and Daughter?

Mrs. John Harrisson and Daughter is held by National Gallery of Art.

What movement is Mrs. John Harrisson and Daughter?

Mrs. John Harrisson and Daughter is associated with Romanticism.

Can I buy a print of Mrs. John Harrisson and Daughter?

Museum-quality prints of Mrs. John Harrisson and Daughter are available made-to-order from Artifact World Gallery.

Artwork

Mrs. John Harrisson and Daughter

Frederick W. Mayhew , 1823

Mrs. John Harrisson and Daughter is an oil painting by the Romanticist artist Frederick W. Mayhew. It dates from 1823 and is held in the collection of the National Gallery of Art. Frederick W.

About this work

Overview

The painting is recorded as originating from South Carolina and is currently held in the collection of the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.

Mrs. John Harrisson and Daughter is an oil on canvas painting created by Frederick W. Mayhew in 1823. The artwork measures 76.2 by 63.2 centimeters and is unsigned. It depicts Harriet Wood Harrisson and her infant child, rendered in a direct and restrained manner characteristic of American naive portraiture. The painting is recorded as originating from South Carolina and is currently held in the collection of the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., having entered the museum as a bequest in 1980.

Subject & Meaning

The painting portrays a woman, identified as Harriet Wood Harrisson, seated and facing the viewer directly, with her infant daughter resting on her lap. The mother wears a pale blue-gray dress with a high ruffled collar and a matching bonnet trimmed with lace and a small decorative crown element, while her brown hair curls visibly at her temples. The infant is clothed in a white dress and a white cap adorned with blue ribbons, wearing a thin gold necklace. The mother's left hand, bearing a gold ring, supports the child. The straightforward, frontal composition and the direct outward gaze of both figures emphasize a solemn, familial bond and maternal role typical of early nineteenth-century portraiture.

Technique & Style

Mayhew employed a restrained palette dominated by blues, grays, whites, and muted earth tones against a plain, dark olive-brown background. The light falls evenly across the figures with minimal shadow, flattening the three-dimensional forms. Brushwork is smooth and flat, featuring precise linear detailing in the lace and costume elements but offering little modeling of the figures' forms. The composition is centered and frontal. The figures occupy a simple wooden chair with green painted decoration along its back rail. The canvas surface exhibits fine craquelure throughout, and the painting remains unsigned.

Context

Frederick W. Mayhew operated as a limner, an itinerant or folk portrait painter, and his life and work in Chilmark have been the subject of localized historical scholarship. The painting fits within the broader tradition of American naive painting, a category extensively catalogued by the National Gallery of Art. Scholarly attention to Mayhew includes Doris C. Stoddard's 1986 study on his role as a limner in Chilmark, Joyce Hill's 1984 article exploring connections between faces, figureheads, and scrimshaw, and the 1992 systematic catalogue of American Naive Paintings at the National Gallery of Art by Deborah Chotner and others, which specifically includes this work.