- Portrait:
- Figure composition:
- female »
"[…] hélas je n’ai pas/ beaucoup travailler. J’ai fait en Amerique un portrait de fillette/ dont hélas je n’ai pas encore de foto. des Fleurs. copie de la merveilleuse/ statue de bois du XII, que j’avais dans mon atelier et que/ je considère comme une des merveille de la sculpture de/ ces époques, et pour la naissance de la petite Miriam j’ai faite/ un Ange portant des fleurs, pastel, et quelques dessin et ici en France/ nous sommes dans un très jolies petit village, j’ai fait un pastel/ de la petite Eglise Romane, qui a une poësie la contré[e] est très/ belle j’espère avoir le plaisir de te voir ici, et un grand/ portrait de Madame Pitcairn dans le parc. […]" [sic] (… alas I have not worked much. I have made in America a portrait of a little girl, of which, alas, I have not yet a photo, flowers, a copy of a marvellous 12th century wooden statue, which I had in my studio and which I consider to be one of the marvels of the sculpture of these periods, and for little Miriam’s birth I have made an angel holding flowers, pastel, and some drawings, and here in France we are in a very pretty little village, I have made a pastel of the small Romanesque church, which is poetic, the region is very beautiful, I hope to have the pleasure of seeing you here, and a large portrait of Mrs. Pitcairn in the park …) (Philippe Smit 1928a)
Karen, daughter of Raymond and Mildred Pitcairn, born in 1917 is the fourth of seven children. This portrait was commissioned by her father in 1927 during the artist's visit to Bryn Athyn.