The Flower Girl

Charles Cromwell Ingham

1846 · Oil on canvas · The American Wing

The Irish-born Ingham was familiar with European depictions of street vendors hawking their wares. The choice of a flower girl as a subject for this work—rather than, for example, a newsboy—reveals the artist’s preference for female models and his passion for painting clearly identifiable flowers with chromatic lushness. The young woman’s plain dress and head covering contrast with her basket holding nearly twenty intensely colored flowers. In her right hand, she offers a potted fuchsia in a gesture emblematic of Flora, the Roman goddess of flowers. The plant itself is symbolic of love.

Artist

Charles Cromwell Ingham

Date

1846

Medium

Oil on canvas

Culture

American

Department

The American Wing

Credit line

Gift of William Church Osborn, 1902