I was struck by some similarities in the facial features of the girl and her doll, although the doll is an adult fashion doll and the girl is all of seven. Both have round faces, strongly arched eyebrows, quite large eyes not deeply set in the face, set off by a straight grecian nose and generous mouth.
There the similarities end: the doll has the unnaturally long torso, arms and legs of a fashion doll, a luxuriant head of hair and a dress of incredible detail and craftsmanship; the girl has the sturdy build of a healthy child, hair in corkscrew curls and bangs, an attractive age-appropriate dress with shoulder flounces and lace at the cuffs. Dolls that really looked like children or babies were a later 20th century invention. Notice that though the doll's head is porcelain or composition, her body is stuffed cloth and her hands are sewn (some less expensive dolls of the age were made entirely of cloth with less realistic painted faces without raised features). If a doll is ever meant to look human, it is usually the eyes that never quite meet the test.
This cabinet portrait by Meathieu Studio in Watertown and Sun Prairie, Wisconsin, is unusual in that the child is not seated holding the doll – it intends to display the doll, her prized possession.