Woman with Gold Necklace

About this artwork

Woman with Gold Necklace combines the Prior-Hamblin School’s enthusiasm for portraiture, ornamental painting, and landscape scenery. Aside from a lively business in portraiture, William Matthew Prior painted several landscape scenes, which he referred to as “fancy pieces,” a term used in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth century to describe a variety of arts such as decorative painting, knitting, and quilting. His advertisements boasted that he worked “in a very tasty style.” (V...

Art Historical Context

**Woman with Gold Neckl** *Prior-Hamblen School, ca. 1850* Oil on canvas Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of Herbert Waide Hemphill, Jr. and museum purchase made possible by Cross Johnson Step into the world of 19th-century folk art with *Woman with Gold Neckl*, a charming waist-length portrait from the Prior-Hen School. This collaborative style, led by painters William Matthew Prior and Sturte J. Hamblin, in New England around 1840–1860. They were itinerant artists who catered to middle-class families, producing affordable, stylized portraits that captured everyday sitters with ...