Description:

William Henry Baker
American/New York, 1825-1875, active New Orleans 1848-1865
"Portrait of Oliver Miller White (1853-1922) and Hannah White (1855-1870) with Dog"
oil on canvas
unsigned, ornate period frame.

Provenance: Collection of W. E. Groves, New Orleans, LA.

Note: William Henry Baker was an itinerant portrait painter who lived in Nashville, Tennessee in the mid-1840s and came to New Orleans in 1848 to initially pursue a career as a merchant. After a stint at a local art studio, he decided to instead become a portrait painter and worked primarily in the area from 1848 to 1865 with some travels in the summers. He had little formal art training although reputedly studied informally under Enoch Wood Perry, Jr. in the early 1860s in Europe. By 1865, Baker settled permanently in New York City, where he exhibited portrait and genre paintings at the National Academy of Design and the Brooklyn Art Association. Baker worked in a fashionable and complex style known as "Grand Manner," in which visual cues signified the wealth of the sitters. Portraits in this style were frequently life-sized in proportion and included metaphorical references or animals, two traits which can be seen in the rare work offered here.

The style was appealing to the upper class in New Orleans, such as Oliver Miller White and Elizabeth Mary neé Garvey White (c. 1833-1900). The couple moved to New Orleans from Kennebunk, Maine around 1848. White was a successful commission merchant and part owner of the steamboat J. Morrissett. Baker painted at least three known portraits of the White children, each including animals, lush textures and dramatic lighting, as well as works depicting Oliver Miller White and his friend, ship builder Jehangir Nowrojee (dated September 1857), and a portrait of famous Louisiana actress and poet Adah Isaacs Menken.

A painting in the collection of Roger H. Ogden shows four of the five children born to the family, including two who had previously died. Orlando (first born), and his sister Mary Julliet (second born), were painted posthumously likely from miniatures or photographs. In the portrait presented here, Oliver Miller White (Jr.) is depicted with his sister, Hannah White, the two surviving children at the time. Oliver was born on February 16, 1853 and baptized April 6, 1862 at Lafayette Presbyterian Church in New Orleans. He later married Theodora Waller on July 28, 1888 in New Orleans and had five children. He died in New Orleans in 1922. Hannah White was born on October 17, 1855 and died at the age of just fifteen in 1870. A third work by Baker, once again depicting four White children, is now conserved at the Louisiana State Museum. The fifth child of the couple, Adele Casey, is not included in the paintings, having been born on December 5, 1857.

Ref.: "The Children of Elizabeth Mary (neé Garvey) and Oliver Miller White." 64 Parishes. www.64parishes.org. Accessed Oct. 30, 2025; Lewis, Richard Anthony. "William Henry Baker." 64 Parishes. www.64parishes.org. Access Oct. 30, 2025. "Ship-builder Jehangir Nowrojee (1821-1866) and Steamboat Agent Oliver Miller White." The Indian Portrait. www.theindianportrait.com. Accessed Oct. 30, 2025.

  • Dimensions: 48 x 33 in. (121.9 x 83.8 cm.), Frame: 57 x 44 1/2 x 8 in. (144.8 x 113 x 20.3 cm.)
  • Medium: oil on canvas
  • Condition: Relined; cleaned but not recently; difficult to penetrate varnish layer with UV light; 1 x 2 in. repair with associated inpainting and corresponding patch en verso at center (above girl's head); multiple areas and dots of inpainting, some visible to the naked eye, throughout, particularly along edges and foreground; abrasions, small losses and gold paint/gilt accretions along all edges and area where demilune covers canvas from contact with frame; areas of craquelure pattern visible in faces, hands and foreground; 1/2 x 1/4 in. area of pigment loss mid-left edge; surface dirt; 2 small indentations with associated losses upper center edge under frame; frame has multiple repairs to decorative elements, multiple surface/paint repairs, cracks, small losses, nicks and marks; previously repaired decorative element on upper edge is loose.

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November 21, 2025 11:00 AM CST
New Orleans, LA, US

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