Collection Highlights
The Course of Empire: The Consummation of Empire
1836
1858.3
Oil on canvas (relined)
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Museum Collections
Luce Center
A Window, House on Hudson River
Title
A Window, House on Hudson River
Date
1863
Medium
Oil on canvas
Dimensions
Overall: 27 x 19 1/2 in. (68.6 x 49.5 cm)
frame: 39 x 31 1/2 x 4 1/4 in. (39 x 31 1/2 x 4 1/4 in.)
Description
An African-American nurse sits on the window seat in an elegantly furnished home holding a white baby in an elaborate outfit, possibly a christening dress. Light streams in from the window, blazing a path through the dim interior. Outside is a crystalline view of the Hudson River.
Credit Line
The Robert L. Stuart Collection, on permanent loan from the New York Public Library
Object Number
S-71
Gallery Label
The nurse would have been an emancipated worker, since slavery had by this time been abolished in New York. The baby's outfit appears to be a christening dress and the open window in the background is a traditional symbol of hope. Whittredge was primarily a landscape painter and his genre scenes often included through-the-window landscapes. The setting for this painting is believed to be the Louisa Nevins residence in Riverside, N.Y.
Due to ongoing research, information about this object is subject to change.
