Alberta Binford McCloskey (about 1855–1911)

ALBERTA BINFORD MCCLOSKEY (about 1855–1911)
Eleanor, 1891
Oil on panel, 14 x 10 in.
Signed, dated, and inscribed (at lower right):  A B McCloskey / 91 NY

EX COLL.: the artist, New York and San Francisco, until 1911; to her daughter, Eleanor Alberta McCloskey Russell, Santa Ana, California; private collection, California, until 2006

Between 1890 and 1892, both McCloskeys, working separately and sometimes together, painted numerous pictures of their daughter, Eleanor, in various genre-like poses. (It was Eleanor who later donated a huge number of works by her parents to The Bowers Museum.) The present work, painted by Alberta in New York in 1891, is similar to a larger watercolor painted in Paris by Alberta in the next year, 1892 (The Bowers Museum of Cultural Art, Santa Ana, California). In that work, Waiting, Eleanor’s pose is similar, looking up, although this time she is at the foot of a staircase. In Waiting Eleanor wears an elegant, if somber, dark velvet outfit with a matching hat. In Eleanor, her long red and white frock with lace trimmed jabot is matched with a red and white parasol.