Year 1865 (1865) Condition On display Created 1865 | Medium Oil on canvas Artist Thomas Le Clear | |
Location Smithsonian Museum of American Art, Washington, DC | ||
Director s choice interior with portraits by thomas leclear
Interior with Portraits is an 1865 genre scene painted by American artist Thomas Le Clear (1818-1882), commissioned by Franklin Sidway (1834-1920).
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About
The painting features two children, James and Parnell Sidway, posing for a photograph in an artist's studio. The painting was commissioned by the subjects' older brother, Franklin Sidway. Parnell died of illness as an adolescent; James, a volunteer firefighter, died in a hotel fire at the age of 26, shortly before the painting was commissioned.
Both children were painted posthumously from family daguerreotypes. Some painters of the time regarded photography with suspicion, and refused to use photographs as references for portraits. The painting is filled with references to this tension. The children are surrounded by painted portraits, and the photographer's back is to the viewer with his face obscured. The girl appears to be supporting the boy and holding him still, as might have been necessary when posing a child for an early photograph due to the long exposure time. A dog is depicted just entering the studio, another acknowledgement of early photography's limitation to still subjects.
Smithsonian Museum of American Art
The painting is currently owned by the Smithsonian American Art Museum and the purchase was made possible by a bequest of Pauline Edwards in 1993.