GEORGE HENRY STORY (NY/CT, 1835-1923), ATTRIBUTED

Monumental Portrait of an American Family, circa 1885, depicted in a Victorian parlor, the father to the right seated in shadow, reading a newspaper, his optical instruments behind; the mother is seated to the left at her sewing stand; the daughter with doll and son with book at center, no frame. OS: 41 1/2" x 50 3/4". Cleaned and relined long ago, repaired tear lower left, to left of daughter, recent small patches cleaned as samples upper right and just in front of father.Story was born in New Haven, Conn. He trained as a woodcarver, traveled to Europe to study painting and sett up a studio in Portland, Maine upon his return in 1858. Two years later, he had moved to Washington, DC, and met Lincoln when asked to help pose him for his first official photograph portrait. He subsequently had a steady source of income from painting portraits of the President, and (after his assassination) came to be in demand by upper crust families to paint composite portraits of generations (which was also a popular photographic theme).