William W. Kennedy (1817-1871)

Lived/Active; Maine, New Hampshire, Massachusetts and Connecticut

Portrait of a Boy Holding a Book, ‘Pleasure and Profit’

Signed and dated on verso: Wm. W. Kennedy, 1846

Oil on Canvas

20 ¼” x 19 ¼” with frame.

Over-all in excellent condition, one minor patch applied on verso, very minor scattered in-painting.

Provenance: Originally found in Iowa in the early 1980's; Private Collection, Dr. Donald Moylan.

A member of the Prior-Hamblin school of artists, William Kennedy’s work can be identified by several key features. According to Paul S. D'Ambrosio and Charlotte M. Emans’ Folk Art's Many Faces: Portraits in the New York State Historical Association, 1987, “Kennedy's crisp, flat likenesses strongly resemble the Prior and Hamblin portraits. His work can be distinguished from theirs by his consistent portrayal of his sitters with steeply sloping shoulders, squared noses and small pursed lips.”

This portrait of a Boy Holding a Book is one of only a few known signed works by William Kennedy.

$37,500