Rose of Sharon

Shepard Alonzo Mount particularly excelled at portraits of children. Increasingly after the mid-1840s, many Long Island families commissioned the elder Mount brother to paint their children, both living and posthumously. This painting was probably the artist’s most famous portrait, as it became the subject of a print published by the French lithographers Goupil & Company, in 1852. The painting is of Shepard’s daughter, Ruth (or “Tutie,” as she was nicknamed), who can be seen in several other works by the artist.