Austin: Neill-Cochran House Museum - Portrait of Fannie Miller

Austin hosted its annual Museum Day on Sunday, September 18, 2016. Mike and I took advantage of the opportunity to enjoy free admission to several museums and historic homes. Our third stop was the Neill-Cochran House Museum (2310 San Gabriel St.).

In 1855, Washington and Mary Hill commissioned master builder Abner Cook to construct a Greek-Revival-style house northwest of downtown Austin. The Hills never lived in the house; its current name refers to two families who lived here after the Hills built it. Colonel Andrew and Jennie Chapman Neill purchased the house in 1876, and it was later sold to Judge Thomas and Bessie Rose Cochran in the 1890s. It was subsequently acquired by the National Society of Colonial Dames in the State of Texas in 1958 and converted into a museum.

After exploring the home's downstairs rooms, we visited an extension at the rear of the house before heading upstairs. The extension includes a gallery that houses a number of paintings, including this portrait of Fannie Miller by an unknown artist. An informational placard provided a few details on the work:

Unknown Artist
Aunt Fannie, c. 1900
Oil over photograph on paper, 16 x 13-1/2 in.
Gift of Mrs. W. Foster Gillespie (1992.01.36)

Fannie Miller, donor Gertrude Miller Gillespie's ''Aunt Fannie'', was born during the Civil War, and 1880 census records list her as a young woman residing with her parents, grandparents Lucinda Davis and Ebenezer Templeton Miller (on view in this gallery), and four siblings in Jacksonville, Illinois. This elaborately framed, hand-tinted photograph is rendered in oil paint over a photographic base. The unknown artist's colorization of the image is an inventive and successful response to the increasing prevalence of photography as a form of portraiture.

The photograph itself can be seen at the part in the sitter's hair, around the edges of her head, where paint has been lost across her bodice, and in other individual locations. The relatively crisp hairline suggests that the artist followed the line of the photograph rather than improvise to produce more naturalistic hair. In contrast, the face is a study of light and shadow, pigmentation, and volume. As a result, the artist presents a convincing oil portrait in effect, that only with scrutiny can be seen to have a photograph at its base.

Taken in: United States / Texas / Austin / West University (show map)

Taken on: September 18, 2016

Tags:

IMG_5474

Austin

Museum Day

Austin Museum Day

historic home

museum

Neill-Cochran House

extension

art

painting

portrait

Fannie Miller

Aunt Fannie « less

Sets appears in: • Autumn & Winter in Austin - 2016/2017

Camera: Apple iPhone 6, f/2.2, 1/15 sec, 4.2mm, ISO 250 (more info) (hide info)

Camera:	Apple iPhone 6
Aperture:	f/2.2
Exposure Time:	0.067 sec (1/15)
Focal Length:	4.2mm
ISO:	250
Exposure Bias:	0 EV
Flash:	Auto, Did not fire
Exposure Program:	Program AE
Exposure Mode:	Auto
Metering Mode:	Spot
White Balance:	Auto
Color Space:	sRGB
Software:	9.3.5
Show full info

Stats: 333 views

go back

close tools panel

Badge creator

Use Flickriver Badge Creator to create a badge linking to your photos, your group or any other Flickriver view.

You can place your badge on your Flickr profile, Blog or Website.

Add to your iGoogle or Netvibes page

Flickriver widget for iGoogle or Netvibes can display almost any Flickriver view - most interesting today, by user, by group, by tag etc. Once added to your personalized homepage, just edit widget settings to select your desired view.

Clickr on one of the buttons below to install:

Embed on your Web site

To embed this view, Copy and Paste the following HTML code:

Black background (preview):

White background (preview):

Firefox and Chrome addons

Adds a 'Flickriver' button to your browser. While viewing any Flickr photos page, click on this button to open the same view on Flickriver.

Install in Firefox
Install in Chrome

Search plugin

Add 'Search on Flickriver' to your browser's search box. Works with Firefox and Internet Explorer. Install search plugin

"View on Flickriver" Greasemonkey script

A Greasemonkey script that adds Flickriver links to various Flickr photo pages - user photos, favorites, pools etc, allowing to quickly open the corresponding Flickriver view.

Also, allows quickly viewing any Flickr photo on black background in large size.

Install "View on Flickriver" script

Bookmarklet

While viewing any Flickr photos page, click on the bookmarklet to open the same view on Flickriver.

To install: drag and drop the following link to your Bookmarks toolbar.
IE users - add the link to your Favorites under the Links folder