This Little Pig Went to Market

Inscriptions

Signed recto, bottom-left, on carpet, in yellow paint: "L. M. Spencer / pinx".

Provenance

Cosmopolitan Art Association, Ohio and New York, by Dec. 1859 [engraving of work reproduced in Cosmopolitan Art Journal 3, no. 5 (Dec. 1859): frontispiece]; Elizabeth Wilt Collins (1804–1876; born Elizabeth Wilt Hertzog; also Mrs. E. W. Collins), Collinsville, IL, Jan. 1860 [as premium given to a subscriber by the Cosmopolitan Art Association; Cosmopolitan Art Journal 4, no. 1 (Mar. 1860): i]. Letitia Duff Dyke (1925–2018; born Letitia Duff Reuter), Pittsburgh, PA, by 2018; by descent to the estate of Letitia Duff Dyke; sold, Concept Art Gallery, Pittsburgh, PA, Sept. 28, 2019, lot 230, as This Little Piggy. With George Turak (dealer), Philadelphia, by Dec. 2019; sold to Godel & Co., Inc., Bedford, NY, Dec. 2019; sold to the Art Institute of Chicago, 2021.

Exhibition history

New York, Cosmopolitan Art Association, Düsseldorf Gallery, Dec. 1859 [?]–Jan. 31, 1860, no. 1.

Publications

Cosmopolitan Art Journal 3, no. 5 (Dec. 1859): 247.

Data retrieved from the Art Institute of Chicago on October 8, 2026. The museum may have updated its record since.

Quick Overview

Artist: Lilly Martin Spencer (American, born England, 1822–1902)
Date: c. 1857
Medium: Oil on canvas
Dimensions: 61 × 50.8 cm (24 × 20 in.)
Type: Painting
Style: 19th century
Place: United States
Department: Arts of the Americas
Credit line: Roger and J. Peter McCormick Endowment Fund; through prior acquisition of George F. Harding Collection; through prior gift of Chicago Normal School Alumni
Accession no.: 2021.1

Open-access museum record · AT-00001755