Label
The Whipples, ca. 1950
Oil on canvas
Hilda Belcher
Gift of Stephen Patterson Belcher, Jr., and Barbara Belcher Mericle, 1993
One can feel the affection Hilda Belcher felt for these children, her neighbors in Pittsford, Vermont. The warmth of tone and expression is communicated beautifully in this candid portrait of three very real children, with varying expressions on their faces that give more than a little hint as to their personalities. It is quite a contrast to the flat expressionless faces of so many of the young children in the portraits of the previous century, when children were really regarded as little adults, rather than a separate species from their parents as they became at a later date.