William Babcock was one of the first of a group of mid-nineteenth-century Bostonians to seek an artistic education in France. He studied with the Parisian master Thomas Couture and then moved to Barbizon to work with Jean-Francois Millet. Babcock introduced fellow New Englander William Morris Hunt to Millet about 1853; the two Americans so admired the French artist that they both imitated his style and worked hard to popularize his art in the United States.
Babcock's "Girl with a Pink Bonnet," painted in France, combines the style of Millet's early romantic paintings of young women of the 1840s and his tender images of peasant girls from the 1850s. The facial features of Babcock's girl (probably a hired model) resemble those of the peasant children Millet painted; the delicacy of her expression is underscored by Babcock's simple, intimate composition and the softness of his technique. Babcock's contemporaries admired him for his color. In his 1853 book, "The Art Idea," esteemed critic James Jackson Jarves wrote of Babcock, "His sense of color. . .is an infusion direct from original life. It is a madness, a wild passion, a splendid frenzy." Babcock's rich, high-keyed yet harmonious oranges and pale pinks are especially effective in this picture, for they convey the young girl's sweetness, charm, and innocence.

This text was adapted from Carol Troyen and Janet Comey, "Children in American Art" (Nagoya/Boston Museum of Fine Arts, 2007, in Japanese).

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