Bidspirit auction | American School, 19th Century, Large

American School, 19th Century, Large Folk Art Family Portrait - This large-scale mid-19th-century American folk art portrait is executed in oil on canvas. The composition depicts a mother, father, and young child in a stylized provincial manner characteristic of the period. The father is shown with prominent side-whiskers, wearing a dark coat and a black bow-tie over a high-collared white shirt. The mother is draped in a dark reddish-brown shawl over a white chemisette with a lace collar. Centrally positioned, the child wears a white dress with lace-trimmed pantalettes and holds a small bunch of pink and red flowers. The work is housed in a period-appropriate gilded wood and gesso frame featuring multiple tiers of molded decoration, including a bead-and-reel border and an embossed geometric star pattern. The verso shows a simple wooden stretcher with the canvas secured by tacks. Faint, illegible handwritten script is present on the top wooden stretcher bar. 47.625 x 38.5 inches. The painting exhibits overall age-appropriate craquelure across the entire paint surface. There are visible surface abrasions and several small points of paint loss, including a small puncture on the child's nose and cheek area. The canvas is somewhat slack on the stretcher. The surface shows an accumulation of dust and grime. The gilded frame has areas of significant gesso and gilding loss, particularly along the edges and at the corners.