Eliza Osgood Peabody, Age 6

The little girl in this primitive portrait is six-year-old Eliza Osgood Peabody, born in 1824 into a wealthy Boston family. Eliza wears lacy bloomers and a brown and gold dress with puffy sleeves. She stands on a decorative rug in front of crimson curtains that have been drawn back to frame her figure. The awkward proportions of the child’s body suggest that the artist received little or no formal training. In 1850, Eliza married Isaac Andrew, brother of Massachusetts governor John Andrew.