Little Miss Fairfield

William Matthew Prior

National Gallery of Art

A young, round-cheeked, pale-skinned child wears a red dress and sits in front of a landscape in this vertical portrait painting. Her dark blond hair is parted down the middle and pulled to the sides to make ear-length ringlets that frame her square face. She has faint, arched brows, wide-set, large blue eyes, a tiny nose, and a bow-shaped mouth over a bulb-like chin. The garnet-red dress is patterned with rows of tiny black dots. The bodice has a straight neckline and slate-blue bows over short sleeves. The child’s pink stockings and black shoes tied with bows peek out from the long hem of the skirt, where one foot kicks up and the other points toes down as if swinging her feet back and forth. She gently holds a toy rabbit, which has gray fur, pink eyes, and a pink collar, with one hand in her lap. The other hand cups lightly against her chest. A burgundy-red curtain hangs behind her, filling the top third of the background. A tan-colored column, wider than the girl’s shoulders, is immediately behind the curtain, and trees and shrubs reach into the distance under a pink-streaked blue sky.