Skip to main contentProvenanceThe artist
The Richard and Virginia Wood Collection
Berry-Hill Galleries, Inc., New York, New York
Daniel J. Terra Collection, Chicago, Illinois, 1984
Terra Foundation for the Arts Collection, Chicago, Illinois, 1999
Exhibition History
Jacob Maentel
(American, 1763–1863)
Child with Rose
1825–39
Watercolor on cream wove paper
Sheet: 11 x 9 in. (27.9 x 22.9 cm)
Frame: 14 x 11 15/16 in. (35.6 x 30.3 cm)
Frame: 14 x 11 15/16 in. (35.6 x 30.3 cm)
Credit LineTerra Foundation for American Art, Daniel J. Terra Collection
Object number1999.92
SignedUnsigned
InterpretationJacob Maentel’s Child with Rose portrays a girl standing before a stylized landscape of rolling, tree-dotted hills. Wearing a full pink dress with a frilled collar and short gathered sleeves, the child holds a single pink rose in her right hand. A beaded necklace encircles her throat. Her smooth dark hair is pulled back from her face with a rather severe effect that complements the sober expression of her dark eyes and compressed mouth. Trees frame the figure on either side. The tall tree on the right is in scale with the girl, but she dwarfs the rail fence that appears placed immediately behind her, as well as the scattered trees on the distant hills. The figure itself is strangely proportioned, her head over-large for a body supported by incongruously tiny feet. Such inconsistencies of scale and perspective, along with the formulaic quality of the girl’s form, mark Child with Rose as the work of a self-taught artist serving a provincial clientele.
Child with Rose is typical of Maentel's work as an itinerant portrait-maker. His figures, invariably shown at full-length, are usually placed in a landscape with a low horizon, as here, or in elaborately detailed, highly ornamented interiors. Maentel often portrayed children in images apparently commissioned by their parents or other family members on such special occasions as baptisms. With her frilly pink dress and serious expression, the unidentified girl in this work appears at the threshold between childhood and maturity. Grasped with self-conscious display, her pink rose, a traditional Christian symbol of grace, seems intended to project her own incipient blossoming as a woman. Maentel's symbolic use of flowers in Child with Rose and in his Woman in Profile with a Flower (TF 1999.94) testifies to his awareness of conventions of female portraiture manifest in other works in the Terra Foundation Collection, such as Portrait of Mrs. John Stevens (Judith Sargent, later Mrs. John Murray) (TF 2000.6) by John Singleton Copley and Mary Elizabeth Smith (TF 1992.56) by Ammi Phillips.
Child with Rose is typical of Maentel's work as an itinerant portrait-maker. His figures, invariably shown at full-length, are usually placed in a landscape with a low horizon, as here, or in elaborately detailed, highly ornamented interiors. Maentel often portrayed children in images apparently commissioned by their parents or other family members on such special occasions as baptisms. With her frilly pink dress and serious expression, the unidentified girl in this work appears at the threshold between childhood and maturity. Grasped with self-conscious display, her pink rose, a traditional Christian symbol of grace, seems intended to project her own incipient blossoming as a woman. Maentel's symbolic use of flowers in Child with Rose and in his Woman in Profile with a Flower (TF 1999.94) testifies to his awareness of conventions of female portraiture manifest in other works in the Terra Foundation Collection, such as Portrait of Mrs. John Stevens (Judith Sargent, later Mrs. John Murray) (TF 2000.6) by John Singleton Copley and Mary Elizabeth Smith (TF 1992.56) by Ammi Phillips.
The Richard and Virginia Wood Collection
Berry-Hill Galleries, Inc., New York, New York
Daniel J. Terra Collection, Chicago, Illinois, 1984
Terra Foundation for the Arts Collection, Chicago, Illinois, 1999
Exhibition History
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.