Images of girls with their dogs are fast becoming my favorite subject, and I'm definitely charmed by this one, which is wonderfully strange, as if an image from a dream--which of course is often what makes children's drawings so compelling, which I believe is what this is. I assume this giant jet black creature is indeed a dog--with a big stick in its mouth???--looming larger than life in the maker's imagination; and would guess it is her hat she is holding, with a giant plume (?) attached. Her face and the still-saturated colors of her dress and pants I think could not be better, and then this fantastic fairy-like lady in purple dress in the background, perhaps holding a parasol but I prefer to think a magic wand!
Watercolor and pencil on lined paper, dated Dec. 3, 1870 on the reverse. At the bottom of the drawing, on the green beneath her feet, is painted M C K, standing for its maker, M.C. Killian, noted on the back. The paper is irregular along the left edge, probably torn from a larger page long ago, perhaps before the drawing was made. There is a horizontal fold and scattered stains but it remains super vivid. As is the drawing is floated on a burnt orange-ish mat with black then white mat around it and a gold-painted wooden frame; there is a bit of darkening to the white mat and one could easily re-mat and/or reframe it, though I'd likely hang it up immediately just as it is!
12 3/4" x 10 1/2" framed. Drawing measures 7 5/8" x 7 5/8". Photos show some glare/reflection. Details offer the truest sense of color.