John Hesselius probably painted this portrait of his six-year-old stepdaughter, Eleanor, after she and her baby brother died of an unidentified illness in 1767. Hesselius depicted Eleanor as a sturdy, bright-eyed child, dressed in loose satin garments that referenced the style of British portraiture of the time. She is surrounded by symbols of prosperity. The red parrot, native to the warm areas of the southern hemisphere, was seen as exotic by European colonial settlers in North America and would have evoked material wealth and trade, as would the potted orange tree. The parrot was also a symbol of the Virgin Mary in Christian religion, and Hesselius may have been suggesting that his stepdaughter was now in a heavenly realm.