“The Children of Nathan Starr,” by Ambrose Andrews, 1835

The subjects of this portrait as "conversation piece" are the five youngest children of Nathan Starr (1784-1852) and Grace Townsend Starr (1789-1856) of Middletown, Connecticut. From about 1813 to 1845, Starr was successfully engaged with his father in the manufacture of arms, mainly for the federal government. Besides the children portrayed here, the couple had three elder children - Elihu William Nathan (1812-1891), Mary Elizabeth (1815-1898), and Ebenezer Townsend (1816-1899) - as well as three others who died in infancy.

The children are posed in a Greek Revival parlor whose doors open onto a sweeping view of the Connecticut River. Three of the five play at “battledore and shuttlecock”, an early form of badminton. The youngest child, at center, holds a hoop and stick. (This child died that same year, at the age of three; it's possible that he was included in the painting after his death. The lesser quality of his portrait, compared with those of his siblings, could signify that his likeness was not taken from life.)

Left to right, the children are: Henry Ward (1826-1892), aged 9; Frederick Barnard (1829-1865), aged 6; Edward Pomeroy (1832-1835), aged 3; Emily Helen (1820-1898), aged 15; and Grace Ann (1823-1893), aged 12.

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Ambrose Andrews (19 July 1801, West Stockbridge, Massachusetts – circa 1877, Palmyra, New York), American itinerant portrait, miniature, and landscape painter. He attended the National Academy of Design in 1824, and went on to a geographically wide-ranging career that saw him, before 1844, in many regions of the country, including New York, Connecticut, Texas, and Louisiana. After 1844, he was active in St. Louis, New York City, Buffalo, Vermont, and Canada.