“The Lincoln Children”, by Susane Waters

“The Lincoln Children”

A portrait painted by Susan Catherine Moore Waters in
1845. Oil on canvas.
Courtesy, 2003, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
Juliana Cheney Edwards collection.

Susan Waters received the traditional education for a girl child, which included art lessons.  She was able to pay for her own and her sister’s education by selling her work.  Waters spent much of her adult life in Bordentown. She was well known for her animal paintings and primitive style.  This is one of her rare portrait paintings. It depicts three children wearing pantalettes. The middle child, with bobbed hair and a shorter skirt than the other two, may be a boy, since male children were often dressed in this fashion.  (These children are not related to President Lincoln.)