Object details
Accession number
F18n29
Primary Creator
English
Full title
Dummy Board: Young Boy Holding a Kitten in his Hat
Creation Date
late 17th century
Provenance
Entered Isabella Stewart Gardner's collection by about 1900.
Dimensions
96.5 x 28 cm (38 x 11 in.)
Display Media
Oil on oak panel
Web Commentary
Dummy boards, also known as picture boards or silent companions, were produced in the England and the Netherlands from the late 17 century through the 19th century to enliven an otherwise plain or uninteresting corner of a room. This boy holds a kitten in a broad-rimmed hat and is one of a pair - its partner (F18n11) shows a girl holding a puppy.
Permanent Gallery Location
Little Salon
Bibliography
Gilbert Wendel Longstreet and Morris Carter. General Catalogue (Boston, 1935), p. 140. (as Dutch or English, last quarter of the 17th century)
Helaine W. Fendelman et al. Silent Companions: Dummy Board Figures of the 17th through 19th Centuries. Exh. cat. (Rye, New York: The Rye Historical Society, 1981), p. 15, ill. (as English or Dutch, late 17th century)
Ellenor Alcorn et al. The Best of the Decorative Arts. Exploring Treasures in the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum IV. Exh. cat. (Boston: Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, 1992), pp. 16-17, ill. (as England or Netherlands, about 1700)
Loa C. Winter. "Dummy Boards." The Decorator (1993/1994), p. 9, ill. (as English or Dutch, late 17th century)
Rights and reproductions
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