Visual Description

This portrait is an oil on canvas approximately 4 ½ feet tall by 5 feet wide. The portrait consists of five light-skinned family members: two parents and three children. The colors are mainly shades of blue, black, brown, and cream, and give the portrait a calm and stoic mood.
The mother and father are seated on opposite ends of a cream-colored, upholstered sofa with dark wood frame. Their bodies angle toward the center of the painting. The mother, on the left, looks to your right at an unknown focal point. She is wearing a medium blue satin dress in the dropped-waist style of the 1920s: sleeveless with a long straight skirt ending below her knees. Her dark hair is rolled and pinned close to her head. Her dark lips are pursed into a line, making her emotional expression indiscernible. Her husband on the far right also sits at an angle and stares out into the distance. He is wearing a black suit, buttoned at the stomach, with a white dress shirt and a black bow tie. His salt-and-pepper hair is receding; his brow is slightly furrowed; and his lips are tightly shut.
The eldest child sits between his parents wearing a brown suit jacket and matching shorts. His dark gray socks rise to just below the knee and his legs are somewhat outstretched, allowing the viewer to see the soles of his dark shoes. He has dark brown hair and stares out at an angle. Another figure sits on floor to the far left below his mother. He is wearing a cream suit with matching socks, shoes, and cardigan tied around his shoulders. His hair is a medium golden brown and he has a round face. Again, his solemn and stern face stares off at an angle. Lastly, the infant stands between her father’s legs, her right hand resting in her father’s. She is wearing a short, light-blue dress with visible cream-colored bloomers underneath and cream booties and her golden hair primarily consists of one thick curl on top her head. She is sucking on her left thumb as she stares directly at the viewer. At the bottom right corner of the composition, there is a small, brown, toy monkey lying on its back, also staring directly at the viewer. The family’s body language and grouping suggest intimacy, yet their vacant and multidirectional stares create a slight sense of unease among an otherwise calm and stoic image.