Attributed to William W. Kennedy (New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Maryland, 1818-1870) Portrait of a Girl in a Red Dress.

Description:

Attributed to William W. Kennedy (New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Maryland, 1818-1870)

Portrait of a Girl in a Red Dress. 1840s. Unsigned. Oil on academy board, depicting the young girl, with flanking drapery above, seated in a three-quarter view, wearing a red dress trimmed with white lace, earrings and a matching coral necklace and bracelet on her arm which cradles a doll dressed in white; a suggestion of a landscape consisting of flowers and trees appears on her right, reframed, (good condition, with slight warping, minor abrasions, and minor paint loss),ht. 22, wd. 17 1/2 in. (sight).

Provenance: Family descent to the consignor.

Note: William W. Kennedy is known to have worked as a portrait painter in New Bedford, Massachusetts, in 1845 and in Berwick, Maine, in 1847. He is included in the group known as the "Prior Hamblin" artists because of the stylistic similarity of his portraits. Recorded proximity of Kennedy and William Matthew Prior at particular times explains their remarkably similar painting characteristics.
Estimate $15,000-25,000

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