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De Luce was a noted portrait and genre painter.

An Anxious Mother is a typical Victorian scene of a child at play.

This is the first painting acquired by the museum after it was founded in 1883.

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Percival De Luce

The Anxious Mother,

oil on canvas

16 x 12 in.

Gift of the Girls Classical School

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Percival De Luce was born in New York City.  He studied art at the academy in Antwerp, Belgium and then in Paris.  He was the first American artist to study in Antwerp. After returning to New York, De Luce began to paint Dutch-inspired scenes of home life.  He is best known as a portrait and genre painter, whose scenes were typical of the Victorian era interest in depicting family life. De Luce was an associate member of the National Academy of Design. Although he is little known today, De Luce was a very successful painter in his own time.

The Anxious Mother is a simple Victorian scene of a child at play and exhibits De Luce’s interest in Dutch scenes of family life.  The little girl is absorbed in the task of feeding her baby doll.  She seems over dressed by today’s standard of attire for girls at play, but her clothes are typical of the Victorian era and are meant to be tasteful and lady-like.  This painting was the first work of art to come into the museum’s collection after it was founded in 1883 and was purchased from the museum’s first loan exhibition with funds provided by the Girls Classical School. Note the painting’s accession number, 83.1, which means it was the first painting to acquired by the museum in 1883.  

Reference

Samuel Isham.  History of American Painting, London: MacMillan Press, 1944.  ASIN: B0014MQ232