The Mysterious Mr. Cousins

In The Digressions of V., Elihu Vedder writes that he “painted the picture and called it "The Motherless." You see, she was an orphan, and the chickens had no mother either, really very touching. But it was a good little picture all the same. It was bought by a Mr. Cousins, well-known man in New York.”

Unfortunately, all that we know about Mr. Cousins is what Vedder wrote in The Digressions of V. Based on this information; we can deduce that Cousins purchased The Motherless at one point between the painting’s creation in 1864-5 and the publication of Vedder’s book in 1910. It’s possible that the work was sold by Doll & Richards Gallery to Mr. Cousins, but there is not yet any proof of this connection. We are continuing to research affluent Cousins living in New York at the time of the sale of the painting and what their connection to the donor may be.

Despite the lack of clarity over the identity of the former owner of the painting, we know that the work was kept in New York for some time.

Text Source:

Vedder, Elihu. The Digressions of V.. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1910.https://archive.org/details/digressionsofv00veddrich (accessed February 19, 2014).

Image Source:

http://www.geographicus.com/P/AntiqueMap/NewYorkCity-johnson-1865