Captain J.L. Gardner's Son at Age 2-1/2

As portrayed by Joseph Whiting Stock, Captain James L. Garder's unnamed son stands commandingly in a well-furnished parlor, teasing a spaniel dog with a whip as he glances engagingly toward the viewer. The lively pet and the broad-brimmed straw hat, resting on an upholstered stool to the right, evoke boyish outdoor play. His short blue dress and pantaloons, typical attire for young males in the nineteenth century, and the elaborate patterned rug, luxurious furniture, and velvet drapery in the background bespeak his family's wealth and social aspirations.

James L. Gardner was a naval officer with the rank of lieutenant who probably was stationed at Bristol, Rhode Island, when Stock painted his son there in the summer of 1842. In his detailed account of his life and works, the artist recorded that he received fifteen dollars for the portrait, a respectable recompense to an itinerant painter working outside the country's art centers. Stock spent sixteen weeks in Bristol, a mercantile town with two large steam factories, but his commissions were limited by the poor state of local business at the time.

Stock generally portrayed adults from the waist up and with few surrounding props, but his many portraits of children typically are more elaborate and show the subject at full-length. In many of these works vivid details of patterned carpets, furniture, drawn-back curtains, and pet dogs complement the youthful vitality of Stock's figures despite their rather stiff poses, in a manner shared with portraits by contemporary limners including Ammi Phillips, whose portrait, Girl in a Red Dress (TF 1992.57), is also in the Terra Foundation's collection. The artist may have copied such standard details from the reproductive prints on which he often modeled his paintings, but he painted the faces from life during multiple sittings in which his subjects' patience surely contended with childish energy. Despite the heavy props and awkward perspective of this portrait, in which the floor seems incongruously tipped up, it conveys the restless activity of a toddler as appreciated by the portraitist, who was confined to a wheelchair for his entire working life.

Two Centuries of American Folk Painting, Terra Museum of American Art, Evanston, Illinois (organizer). Venue: Terra Museum of American Art, Evanston, Illinois, February 10–April 21, 1985.

Selections from the Permanent Collection, Terra Museum of American Art, Evanston, Illinois (organizer). Venue: Terra Museum of American Art, Evanston, Illinois, July 19–September 14, 1985.

Nineteenth Century Genre Painting from The Daniel J. Terra Collection, Terra Museum of American Art, Evanston, Illinois (organizer). Venue: Terra Museum of American Art, Evanston, Illinois, November 15, 1985–January 12, 1986.

A Proud Heritage: Two Centuries of American Art, Terra Museum of American Art, Chicago, Illinois (organizer). Venue: Terra Museum of American Art, Chicago, Illinois, April 21–June 21, 1987. [exh. cat.]

Canines and Felines: Dogs and Cats in American Art, Heritage Plantation of Sandwich, Sandwich, Massachusetts, May 8–October 23, 1988. [exh. cat.]

Domestic Bliss: Family Life in American Art, Terra Museum of American Art, Chicago, Illinois (organizer). Venue: Terra Museum of American Art, Chicago, Illinois, April 12–June 22, 1997.

Collection Cameo, Terra Museum of American Art, Chicago, Illinois, January 2000.

New Faces, New Places: Recent Additions to the Terra Foundation for the Arts Collection, Terra Museum of American Art, Chicago, Illinois (organizer). Venue: Terra Museum of American Art, Chicago, Illinois, October 14–December 31, 2000.

A Rich Simplicity: Folk Art from the Terra Foundation for the Arts Collection, Terra Museum of American Art, Chicago, Illinois (organizer). Venue: Terra Museum of American Art, Chicago, Illinois, June 7–September 21, 2003.

Visages de l'Amérique: de George Washington à Marilyn Monroe (Faces of America: From George Washington to Marilyn Monroe), Musée d'Art Américain Giverny, France (organizer). Venue: Musée d'Art Américain Giverny, France, April 1–October 31, 2004. [exh. cat.]

Twarze Ameryki: Portrety z kolekcji Terra Foundation for American Art, 1770–1940 (Faces of America: Portraits from the collection of the Terra Foundation for American Art, 1770–1940), Musée d'Art Américain Giverny, France and Miedzynarodowe Centrum Kultury (International Cultural Center), Cracow, Poland (organizers). Venue: International Cultural Center, Cracow, Poland, February 15–May 7, 2006. [exh. cat.]

Tomlinson, Juliette, ed. The Paintings and the Journal of Joseph Whiting Stock. Middletown, Connecticut: Wesleyan University Press, 1976. Text pp. 27, 65; ill. no. 19 (black & white).

Atkinson, D. Scott et al. A Proud Heritage: Two Centuries of American Art. Edited by Terry A. Neff. (exh. cat., Terra Museum of American Art). Chicago, Illinois: Terra Foundation for the Arts, 1987. Pl. T-20, p. 129 (color).

McGrath, Robert L. Canines & Felines: Dogs and Cats in American Art. (exh. cat., Heritage Plantation of Sandwich). Sandwich, Massachusetts: Heritage Plantation of Sandwich, 1988. Ill. no. 78, p. 33 (black & white).

Southgate, M. Therese. "The Cover." The Journal of the American Medical Association 266:11 (September 18, 1991): 1470. Text p. 1470; ill. cover (color).

Captain J. L. Gardner's Son at Age 2 1/2, Joseph Whiting Stock. Collection Cameo sheet, Terra Museum of American Art, Chicago, Illinois, January 2000. Ill. (black & white).

Lévy, Sophie, et al. Twarze Ameryki: Portrety z kolekcji Terra Foundation for American Art, 1770–1940/Faces of America: Portraits from the collection of the Terra Foundation for American Art, 1770–1940. (exh. cat. International Cultural Center). Cracow, Poland: International Cultural Center, 2006. Text pp.16–17; ill. p. 62 (color).

Southgate, M. Therese. The Art of JAMA III: Covers and Essays from the Journal of the American Medical Association. Chicago, Illinois: American Medical Association, 2011. Text p. 54; ill. opposite p. 54 (color).