A stern-faced woman and wide-eyed girl stare out of the canvas, intense and unsmiling. The grandmother's head is modeled sensitively but appears overly large. Academic as well as artisan portraitists sketched faces before adding settings and costumes, and Peck, like most itinerant painters competing with Daguerreotype photographers, used stylistic shortcuts and summary forms to reduce his working time. Several group portraits that Peck painted around 1845 during this short-lived challenge to photography feature nearly identical yellow floorboards and trompe l'oeil frames. By the 1850s the portraitist was advertising as a "decorative painter". Peck had probaly praticed ornamental sign or furniture painting earlier, as evidenced by the Bible cover or the trefoil pattern of Jennette's dress, which embellishes clothing and chairs in other Peck portraits.

Peck was also a farmer, seving a rural clientale. Crane family records indicate that he painted this portrait "in trade for one cow."

Source: The American Art Book (Mini Edition)

This is now a very rare print. Catch it while you can. Only a few now left.

Please note: the watermark on the scan isn't on the actual print.