Thomas Wilmer Dewing, born Boston, MA - Portrait of Ethel D. Puffer - 1875 - T-Shirt

A graphite portrait of a young child with curly hair, turned straight toward the viewer against a warm, stained sheet of paper.

Visual Elements & Composition

The head and shoulders fill the upper portion of the sheet, with the face given the most detail. Soft, graded pencil shading on the cheeks, brow and hair gives the face its volume, while the collar and the upper edge of a plain garment are sketched in just a few light strokes below the chin. The rest of the paper stays open. Its tan, yellowed tone carries visible water staining along the lower and right edges, and the artist's signature sits at the lower left, reading T.W.DEWING.

Meaning & Symbolism

The drawing is a study of character rather than status. Its concentrated attention on the face, with the body reduced to a few lines, reflects the emphasis on personality and expression that defined portraiture of the period. The catalogue record identifies the sitter as Ethel D. Puffer and dates the work to 1875. Thomas Wilmer Dewing (1851–1938) was a Boston-born American painter, later associated with the Tonalist movement and the Cos Cob art colony in Connecticut. He worked as a portraitist early in his career and drew throughout his life, and his later figure paintings of women in soft, muted settings grew from the same close observation of the human face.

Wearing the Portrait

On a tee, the child's face sits at chest level, where the eyes meet the viewer's own just as they do on the original sheet. The open, unworked space of the drawing translates to the fabric around the head, so the portrait reads as a single focal point. Worn across the body, the drawing keeps its direct, unguarded gaze in view whenever the wearer turns to face someone.