John Singleton Copley (1738–1815)
MARY AND ELIZABETH ROYALL, about 1758
Oil on canvas
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Julia Knight Fox Fund

The son of a Boston tobacconist, Copley trained himself in the art of painting and by his mid-20s had become Boston’s most sought-after portraitist. Copley seldom painted children. His portrait of Mary and Elizabeth Royall is even rarer for showing the two teenaged daughters of Isaac Royall of Medford (near Boston), Massachusetts, one of the wealthiest merchants in New England. In this portrait, designed to show off the Royalls’ wealth and social status, the girls are dressed in expensive silk gowns trimmed with imported lace.

Mary Stevenson Cassatt (1844–1926)
ELLEN MARY IN A WHITE COAT, about 1896
Oil on canvas
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, anonymous Fractional Gift in honor of Ellen Mary Cassatt

Mary Cassatt's 2 year old niece,

Ellen Mary in a White Coat is a tour de force of compositional invention and psychological insight. The child is encased in a luxurious, bulky hat and coat that become the key structural elements of the composition. The curved line formed by their fur trim contrasts with the rectangles of the yellow chair and background panels. Despite the fact that only her tiny face, hands, and summarily sketched feet are visible, Cassatt has managed to indicate the child’s personality and mood.

William Matthew Prior (1806–1873)
WILLIAM ALLEN, 1843
Oil on canvas
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, bequest of Martha C. Karolik for the M. and M. Karolik Collection of American Paintings, 1815–1865

William Allen is an example of Prior’s more complex style, and the Allen family likely paid the artist a sizeable fee for this charming portrait of their two-year-old son. The greyhound dogs—one of which sports a gilt-buckled collar—were family pets and appeared on the family crest. The flowers, symbolic of innocence and sweetness, and the straw hat, stylish summer headwear for little boys, add colorful notes to the portrayal.

The Stryker Sisters is one of about 20 known works Ralph Earl painted while he was confined in New York City’s debtor’s prison. Delicately posed like a dance team, Ann and Winifred Stryker—ages 6 and 5—show a touching closeness. Earl exhibited painterly virtuosity in the pink slips that show through the gauzy white embroidered exterior of the sisters’ dresses.

John F. Francis (1808–1886)
THREE CHILDREN, 1840
Oil on canvas
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, gift of Maxim Karolik for the M. and M. Karolik Collection of American Paintings, 1815–1865

Francis was influenced by the Romantic painter Thomas Sully, of Philadelphia. He gave his sitters the same bright eyes and rosy complexions that made Sully’s portraits so popular, while portraying his subjects as less pretty and more down-to-earth.

Here the father strums away at a rhythm that encourages the unity of dance and play among the three children and provides a context for the joyous occasion. While the children form a circle among themselves, their steps and cadence are conditioned by the clapping hands of the mother.

Painted on a visit to the British coastal resort town of Lyme Regis in 1895, the portrait of eight-year-old Rosie Rendall, daughter of the town’s mayor, was not a commission but one of a small group of studies Whistler undertook as tributes to the children he called “the little Lyme Regis maidens.” Whistler portrayed Rosie gazing directly at the viewer, nervously clasping her hands. She wears a red pinafore over a black dress and emerges from a dark background.

In this serene and elegant portrait, mother and daughter are fashionably attired. Mrs. Buckham wears a fancy cap adorned with blue silk flowers and lace. Georgianna, about five years old, stands in front of her mother in a brightly colored plaid dress. Mrs. Buckham places her arm around her daughter’s shoulders in a gesture that is both affectionate and protective.