Lois Orne
Artist
Joseph Badger
(American, born 1707 or 1708–1765)
Date1757
Mediumoil on canvas
Dimensions65.2 x 52.4 cm (25 11/16 x 20 5/8 in.)
ClassificationsPaintings
Credit LineEliza S. Paine Fund in memory of William R. and Frances T.C. Paine
Object number1971.102
DescriptionLois Orne is a three-quarter-length portrait of a young girl standing and facing three-quarters to the right, with her head turned forward and her blue eyes staring at the viewer. She wears a plain white cap with a narrow border that folds out from the head, framing her face and revealing her blonde hair. A pentimento above the cap suggests that it was originally drawn higher and rounder than its current low position and flat shape. There are gray shadows in the eye sockets, around the nose and mouth, and along the chin.The girl’s posture is erect, and her proper right arm bends in front of her waist. In that hand she holds a gold whistle and bells. Her left arm hangs loosely by her side. Badger delineated the fingers and fingernails with dark-red lines. Gray shadows on the underside of the proper right hand and back of the left one help to model these elements. The proper right hand also casts a shadow on the girl’s dress, helping define the space.
The child wears a smooth, shiny white dress. The brushstrokes in the costume are the most fluid passages in the painting and create a lively play of light on the fabric, the folds of which are evoked with gray shadows. The dress, which has a curving neckline that begins low on the shoulder and crosses the chest in a gentle arc, is brightest along the proper right sleeve, the neckline, and in the front of the skirt. The sleeves end just below the elbow and have a broad cuff consisting of the same material folded back. The dress fits tightly in the bodice and flows outward from a seam at the waist into a wide skirt with soft folds. The neck and cuffs are trimmed with semitransparent white ruffles.
The brown background is dark and even to the child’s left, lightest immediately to her the right, and gradually darker toward the right edge of the composition. The upper-right corner is pale blue and probably has faded from its original intensity.
Label TextThis portrait by Badger is among the very few that can be documented to the artist’s hand—in this case through the ledger of the girl’s father, Timothy Orne, a wealthy Salem merchant. Apparently the entire family sat for Badger, who was then a leading Boston painter. Like his colleagues, Badger presented the children as if they were respectable little adults. Lois (1756-1822), not yet two years old, grasps a rattle. In 1773, Lois married Dr. William Paine, a distinguished Worcester physician, who gave his bride a silver service made by Paul Revere. The Worcester Art Museum owns thirty pieces from this service. The Paines lived at “The Oaks,” a mansion that still stands on Lincoln Street.ProvenanceBy descent in the family of the sitter, from Timothy and Rebecca (Taylor) Orne; to their daughter Esther (Orne) and John Clarke; to her sister Rebecca (Orne), the sitter, and Joseph Cabot; to their daughter Rebecca Orne Cabot; to her nephew, Joseph S. and Susan (Burley Howes) Cabot; to his cousin Josephine (Rose Lee) and William Gurdon Saltonstall; to their son Robert and Caroline (James Stevenson) Saltonstall, by 1897; to their daughter Harriet (Lee Saltonstall) and William H. Gratwick, Jr., by 1943. Purchased from Mrs. Gratwick, 1971.
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