A Portrait of Two Children

This boldly executed portrait of two well-dressed children from a prosperous Massachusetts family presents them in typical mid-19th-century sartorial fashion: the girl in a flounced dress with wide off-the-shoulder neckline and distinctive tasseled sleeves and short leglets tied at the knees, the boy in a belted embroidered tunic and trousers. Sturtevant Hamblin came from a family of artisans that included his grandfather, father, and three brothers. Most of them advertised as house, sign, and fancy painters, and Sturtevant, who considered himself a portrait painter, probably earned part of his living in this manner. Originally from Portland, Maine, the Hamblins moved to Boston in 1840.