Children Who Witness Abuse, Ernie + Brianna's Doll

Inscriptions

Signed and inscribed, on reverse, lower right, in black ink: Donna Ferrato / Children who / Witness Abuse / Ernie + Briannas Doll / 1995

Label

Play allows children to process their experiences, and dolls are often used to explore a range of emotions from affection to anger. In this image, part of a large body of work that graphically documents domestic abuse, Donna Ferrato shows a child who has witnessed his father assault his mother in an incident that led to his arrest.

A reporter described visiting the Vermont home where Ernie lived with his mother and sister: A year later, the children can’t forget. They act it out over and over. Ernie kicks in doors, punches walls, beats his sister, tries to choke her. Brianna doesn’t try to evade him. She knows there’s no use. Males hurt; females get hurt. Kids don’t think this stuff up. They are re-enacting the roles of the two most powerful people in their lives: Daddy and Mommy. —Claudia Glenn Dowling, Mother Jones, 1998

From the 2019 exhibition All Dolled Up, curated by Amelia Kahl, Barbara C. & Harvery P. Hood 1918 Curator of Academic Programming

The boy, Ernie, is seen attacking a doll that belongs to him and his sister, Brianna. At five years old, when a child should be learning how to make friends and read books, Ernie has learned violence by seeing the unthinkable. He and his sister witnessed their father’s abuse of their mother, ultimately leading to their father’s arrest. Ferrato has spent much of her career documenting the effects of domestic violence on women and their children. Here, Ernie and Brianna become part of a larger story, threaded together by the photographer as witness, about how children learn and relearn behavior and morality.

From the 2026 exhibition A Space for Dialogue 131, I Remember Who I Am When I'm With You, curated by Madeleine A. Saraisky ‘26, Class of 1954 Intern

Exhibition History

A Space for Dialogue 131, I Remember Who I Am When I'm With You, Madeleine A. Saraisky ‘26, Class of 1954 Intern, Alvin P. Gutman Gallery, Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire, July 18 - August 30, 2026.

All Dolled Up, Alvin P. Gutman Gallery, Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire, May 11-August 11, 2019.

Provenance

Margaret E. and Russell A. Rabito, Scarsdale, New York; given to present collection, 2014.

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Subjects