18th century oil on canvas painting of woman with a jerboa and helper or slave.33"x 29".//////////////////////////Provenance: Estate of Janis Kilduff Martin,NYC.This painting has a label on the back from the Salander-O'Reilly Gallery.A highly unusual portrait even for the 18th century.The sitter is showing off her pet, which appears to be a jerboa rodent, and her helper, which is probably the depiction of a young female slave.It wasn't unheard of in the 17th and 18th centuries to depict slaves in portraits, since slaves were considered to be property along with real estate and jewelry, but the image of a slave in a small intimate portrait of a wealthy woman was rare.Portraits were the means for the wealthy upper class and upper class to show off whatever property they were proud of, but those paintings usually were at a distance, so they could include all the property worth mentioning.They were rarely so close up, rarely so intimate.Another aspect that is unusual in this painting is the depiction of a slave girl as young as she is(age 8 to 15), and the closeness of the position, the young girl is almost touching the main subject, perhaps pointing to the jerboa as a playmate.The young girl is also smiling, and wearing an earring, indicating to the viewer that she is well treated and happy, at least as far as that fiction that the sitter wanted to create in the minds of the viewer.At this time in the history of art, portrait painters were like shoe makers, they were not viewed as artists, but workers who needed to be told what to paint, who to paint and how the painting should look.There is no doubt here that the subtle clues about the relationships between the sitter, the pet jerboa and the young slave girl were all dictated to the portrait painter.No attempt was made by David Killen Gallery to determine the country of origin.////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////David"s comments:Lawrence Salander was a famous gallery owner in NYC who sold Old Master and 20th century paintings for millions.His gallery on 79th street was a familiar stomping ground for dealers, collectors and celebrites, who sometimes loaned "Larry" money to "invest" in deals where the turn over was fast.It all came to an end in 2007, when he was arrested for running out of money and other problems.There were no fake/real negative issues with the art he sold, although he sometimes didn't pay consignors, the issues were mostly financial fraud and attempts to get money from wealthy individuals like the tennis player John McEnroe to do art "deals", but then he would fail to pay them back their share of the investments.Below is the Wikipedia story about his life.///////////////////////////////// ///////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// (From Wiki):"Lawrence B. "Larry" Salander (born 1949) is a former New York City art dealer and an artist. His company, the Salander-O'Reilly Galleries, was cited by the Robb Report in 2003 as the best gallery in the world.[1] By late 2007, Salander had been sued by numerous customers and business partners who claimed that Salander and his company had defrauded them.[2][3]In November 2007, Salander filed for personal bankruptcy, listing John McEnroe among his creditors.[4] At the time, several artists represented by Salander-O'Reilly also claimed to be owed money.[5] As a result of his bankruptcy, Salander and his wife were ordered to relinquish control of their finances to a trustee.[6]In March 2009, Salander was charged with 13 counts of first-degree grand larceny, 10 counts of second-degree grand larceny, and other charges.[7][8][9][10] After posting bail of one million dollars, Salander worked in the Phoenix Art LLC Gallery in Millbrook, New York. The Phoenix Gallery exhibited works of the Hudson River Valley, including canvases by well known artist Ralph Della-Volpe, photographer Annemiek do Gersten, and acclaimed Cuban Outsider artist Corso de Palenzuela.[11]On March 18, 2010 Salander pleaded guilty to 29 felony counts of grand larceny and was sentenced to six to eighteen years in prison. He admitted to selling dozens of pieces that he was supposed to hold without permission. In addition the New York Times reported that Mr. Salander had recently been hospitalized with a stroke.[12][13][14]On August 3, 2010, Salander was sentenced to 6 to 18 years in prison for his crimes.[15][16][17]He is currently imprisoned at Rikers Island in New York City.[18]On 6 April 2011, Leigh Morse, the former director of the Salander-O'Reilly Galleries and dealer for actor Robert De Niro, was found guilty by a New York jury of one count of scheming to defraud. On 20 July 2011, Morse was sentenced to serve weekends in prison for four months and make restitution of $1.65 million for defrauding the estates of artists."

Scattered restoration over 10% to 15 % of the surface.