Double Portrait of John Somes Dolliver and William Collins Dolliver

Portraitist William Kennedy was active along the northeastern coast of the United States from Maine to Maryland between about 1845 to 1870. He announced his "New Style of Portrait Painting" in the Nantucket Inquirer in 1845, advertising "painted portraits in oil at one sitting for $3." Working rapidly, he adopted a flat, linear style closely resembling the work of better-known artist William Matthew Prior, with whom he has been associated.


In this double portrait, the twin brothers John and William Dolliver of Gloucester, Massachusetts, are identically attired, wearing royal blue jackets with white collars and black bows at the neck. They are shown holding drum sticks and a toy whip, -- attributes of boyhood, against a plain background. Their facial features, including their outlined eyebrows, blunt-tipped noses, and the t-shaped creases in the corners of their mouths, are characteristics of Kennedy’s style.