Artwork
Child with Straw Hat
Child with Straw Hat is an oil painting by the Realist artist William Matthew Prior. It dates from 1846 and is held in the collection of the National Gallery of Art. Created in 1846, this oil on canvas portrays a young child positioned before a dark brown curtain.
- Inscription
- Inscribed:on reverse (no longer visible, photograph in object file [1978.80.9] in NGA curatorial records): Wm. M Prior 3 Section Trenton Street / East Boston
About this work
Subject & Meaning
The painting shows a young child wearing a straw hat, a simple garment that emphasizes innocence and modest domestic life in mid-nineteenth-century New England.
The painting shows a young child wearing a straw hat, a simple garment that emphasizes innocence and modest domestic life in mid-nineteenth-century New England. The child's direct gaze and the soft lighting suggest a candid portrait of family affection rather than formal status, reflecting contemporary values of childhood purity and the domestic sphere. The work was later acquired by the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., through a gift from Edgar William and Bernice Chrysler Garbisch in 1978.
Technique & Style
Oil on canvas, painted in 1846, measures 76.5 cm by 60.5 cm. The work depicts a child wearing a straw hat, rendered with brushwork characteristic of mid-19th-century American portraiture. It is part of the National Gallery of Art's collection in Washington, D.C.
History & Provenance
William Matthew Prior created the oil-on-canvas painting Child with Straw Hat in 1846. The work's recorded provenance begins in New Hampshire, where it was held by Mrs. H. L. Henderson. She sold the piece in 1949 to the collectors Edgar William and Bernice Chrysler Garbisch.
The Garbisch family subsequently donated the painting to the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., in 1978.
Child with Straw Hat is an oil on canvas painting by William Matthew Prior created in 1846. It entered the collection of the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., through a gift from Edgar William and Bernice Chrysler Garbisch in 1978. The work was previously owned by Mrs. H. L. Henderson of New Hampshire, from whom it was purchased in 1949.
Context
William Matthew Prior painted Child with Straw Hat in 1846, a New England portrait that blends folk realism with emerging Victorian aesthetics, situating the work within his prolific output of middle-class family depictions. The painting entered the National Gallery of Art collection in 1978 via the Chrysler Garbisch gift, having previously been held in New Hampshire, reflecting both regional artistic networks and early 20th-century American art collecting practices.
Scholarly attention to Prior's work has emphasized his role in bridging primitive portraiture and more naturalistic representation, with recent studies focusing on his technical innovations and the social context of his subjects.
Child with Straw Hat remains a key example of 19th-century American folk painting, illustrating how domestic themes and regional identities were visualized in antebellum New England.
Overview
Created in 1846, this oil on canvas portrays a young child positioned before a dark brown curtain. The figure holds a straw hat in the left hand and a small book in the right, dressed in a white dress trimmed with blue and accented by a red necklace. The child’s neutral gaze meets the viewer directly, establishing a simple yet intimate composition.
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Artist & collection
Artist
William Matthew Prior (May 16, 1806 – January 21, 1873) was an American folk artist known for his portraits, particularly of families and children.
