In the early nineteenth century, the out-of-doors was considered a male domain, and girls were generally depicted in domestic settings. By 1831, however, Lydia Child argued in "The Mother's Book" that girls as well as boys would benefit from open air and should be allowed to play outside. Jefferson Gauntt seems to have taken such assertions to heart and painted all his known portraits of children in outdoor settings. Although we do not know the names of the sister and brother in this portrait, we do know (from an inscription on the back of the painting) that Gauntt painted them in Brooklyn, New York. Gauntt settled there in 1832 after studying at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, in Philadelphia, and spending several years traveling along the East Coast painting portraits. He worked in Brooklyn until at least 1857; "Two Children" is one of the most charming of the portraits of children for which he became known.
Although sister and brother wear similar dresses, there are differences: the girl's pantaloons have more lace than her brother's, and his costume is decorated with buttons, a type of ornamentation more characteristically male. Although boys were more commonly shown with dogs, the brother holds a cat. The girl carries a typically feminine bouquet of flowers and affectionately drapes a protective arm over her brother's shoulders.

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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