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The torn book on the nursery floor tells the tale: the little
girl, sitting primly in an enormous chair, sheepishly clutching
her doll, is being punished.
The portrait is from the estate of Louis Comfort Tiffany (1848-1933),
whose father was the founder of the renowned luxury goods store,
Tiffany & Co. As an artist, craftsman, and designer, and
especially for his work in glass, Louis Comfort Tiffany was responsible
for Tiffany & Co.'s worldwide recognition.
The sitter is most likely Hilda Goddard Tiffany (1879-1908).
Louis married Mary Woodbridge Goddard and had four children,
two daughters and two sons. The oldest daughter was Mary Woodbridge
Tiffany (1873-1963), and the youngest, Hilda Goddard Tiffany.
As Mary died in 1884, Louis married Louise Wakeman Knox who also
had four children, one boy and three girls born in 1887,1888,
and 1891. The dress, shoes and hairstyle date the painting to
the early years of the 1880's, and thus to the early childhood
of Tiffany's second daughter, Hilda.
George Henry Story was a prominent member of the New York
art establishment by the 1880's, having been commissioned to
paint the portrait of President Abraham Lincoln early in his
career. Story was born in New Haven, Connecticut in 1835 and
started his career as a woodcarver. After a year of travel in
Europe, he studied portrait painting for three years with Charles
Hines and Louis Ball and then was a resident of a number of major
American cities, including Washington, D.C., when he painted
Lincoln. By 1889, he was curator of the Metropolitan Museum of
Art and, concurrently, the curator at the Wadsworth Athenaeum
in Hartford, Connecticut.
George Story continued to paint, and his work can be found
in the collections of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, The National
Gallery, Smithsonian American Art Museum, the Wadsworth Athenaeum,
and the White House, among others.
The "Portrait of Miss Tiffany" is housed in a tripartite
frame. The inner frame has three levels of embossed gilt with
beading on the 3rd level. The second frame is also in three recessed
parts, the first two having a molded floral motif, the third
beading. The outer, deeply coved frame is in figured mahogany.
The condition of the painting and its frame are excellent
with the exception of the loss of one and one half beads from
the inner band. Both are apparently untouched. |
