Family Portrait

An unusual rendering of a family closely yet comfortably composed in three-quarter length. The pastel colors are brilliant, lifelike and with a clarity that is undiminished after nearly two hundred years. An interpretation of this artwork is intriguing. The foreground depicts three children all having blue eyes. The background exhibits three people, two of whom have blue eyes while the middle young man has brown eyes. The science of genetics has proved that the young man in the middle can't be the elder son of the two older people as they both have blue eyes and two blued eyed people will only produce blue eyed children. Can the young man in the middle possibly be an elder son of the father from a former marriage? After all, he appears wedged in-between the gentleman and the woman suppressing his full face. The girl in a white dress holds pink roses, one open and one emerging. She is held tightly by the mother.The two boys both are in brilliant colors holding everyday objects. The boy in the middle holds a woven rattle ball; the boy on the right holds a slightly opened book penciled '39'. The "39' is unlikely random yet of unknown significance.

American/possibly Continental

We welcome your interpretation.