Girl Building a House of Cards

Girl Building a House of Cards

Girl Building a House of Cards

Artist:Attributed to Thomas Frye (Irish, Dublin, born ca. 1711–12, died 1762 London)
Date:mid-18th century
Medium:Oil on canvas
Dimensions:30 1/8 x 25 1/4 in. (76.5 x 64.1 cm)
Classification:Paintings
Credit Line:Marquand Collection, Gift of Henry G. Marquand, 1890

Catalogue Entry
This painting entered the Museum in 1890 with an attribution to William Hogarth (1697–1764), and over the years has been ascribed by various scholars to Henry Robert Morland (1716?–1797), Joseph Highmore (1692–1780), George Knapton (1698–1778), George Beare (active by 1743, died 1749), and Richard Wilson (1712/13–1782). The Museum long connected the picture with Knapton; the current attribution is due to a proposal advanced by Elizabeth Einberg in 2007. The Irish artist Frye, not widely known today, was well established in London by 1736 as a portraitist, miniaturist, and printmaker. Einberg noted that the large eyes with the lower lids emphasized are typical of Frye, as are the "muscular, well-articulated hands with a strong straight thumb, most unusual in a child portrait."
[2010; adapted from Baetjer 2009]

Copyright Image
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