About the Artwork
This image of domestic harmony depicts the family of Captain Bradford Ripley Alden in their home at the United States Military Academy in West Point, New York. Captain Alden had been Instructor of Military Tactics and Commandant of Cadets at the academy, but the painting shows his family after he had left West Point to assume command of a frontier garrison on the Columbia River in what is now the state of Washington.
At the far left, a dress sword leans against an upturned chair, simultaneously symbolizing Captain Alden’s absence and suggesting that his son has been playing fort. Near the chair, a dog, a conventional emblem of fidelity, looks protectively toward the captain’s wife and children. Holding a large family Bible, Mrs. Ripley looks lovingly to her left, where her son is kissing his baby sister. Behind the children, the hearth symbolizes the familial love warming the entire scene.
Mrs. Bradford Ripley Alden and her Children
1852
Robert Walter Weir
1803-1889
American
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Oil on canvas
Unframed: 32 1/8 x 25 7/8 in. Framed: 41 x 34 3/4
Paintings
American Art before 1950
Museum Purchase, Robert H. Tannahill Foundation Fund
2009.71
Public Domain
Markings
Signed and dated, lower left: Robt. W. Weir | 1852
Provenance
Bradford Ripley Alden (West Point, New York, USA);his wife, Anne Carolina Colemna Alden;
her daughter, Sarah Coleman Alden Derby;
her brother Robert Percy Alden;
his cousin, Mrs. Margaret "Minnie" Coleman Freeman;
Sarah Coleman Alden Derby's son, Roger Derby;
his granddaughter, Lisa Derby Middione;
by descent in the family;
2009-present, purchase by the Detroit Institute of Arts (Detroit, Michigan, USA)
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Provenance pageExhibition History
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The exhibition history of a number of objects in our collection only begins after their acquisition by the museum, and may reflect an incomplete record.
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Suggest FeedbackPublished References
Aherns, Kent. "The Portraits by Robert W. Weir." American Art Journal 6 (May 1974): pp. 13; p. 16 (ill.).
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Credit Line for Reproduction
Robert Walter Weir, Mrs. Bradford Ripley Alden and her Children, 1852, oil on canvas. Detroit Institute of Arts, Museum Purchase, Robert H. Tannahill Foundation Fund, 2009.71.
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