Two children with pale, peachy skin stand and sit on a rocking horse in a wallpapered interior in this square painting. Both children have short, honey-brown hair, high foreheads, dark blue eyes, and small, rounded noses. Their cheeks are smooth and the corners of their thin, pale pink lips curl slightly up. Both wear dresses with puffy, elbow-length sleeves, white collars, calf-length skirts, and wide, white pantaloons over white stockings. At the center of the composition, one child sits astride the rocking horse, which faces our right in profile. The skirt of the forest-green dress splits…
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The Hobby Horse

painter Robert Peckham (American, 1785 - 1877)

c. 1840

Medium
oil on canvas
Classification
Painting
Dimensions
overall: 103.5 x 101.6 cm (40 3/4 x 40 in.) ; framed: 120 x 116.8 x 8.8 cm (47 1/4 x 46 x 3 7/16 in.)
Culture
American
Museum
National Gallery of Art, CAB
Credit line
Gift of Edgar William and Bernice Chrysler Garbisch
Rights
Public domain (NGA Open Access, CC0), as the museum states it.
Who can see it
Tweens profiles and older: its subjects are known and suit older children. How works are placed

View at the National Gallery of Art