Miniature Portraits
Recently I have been spending some time cleaning and getting to know the miniature portraits collected by my great-grandmother. Many in her collection were acquired from a sale at the Metropolitan Museum in New York, and most of those were portraits of Marie Antionette.
I will be posting the entire collection in sections here as I have time.
Some of this first group of paintings were set aside for my niece in honor of her 21st birthday.
Portrait of Marie Antionette in a green dress, goauche on ivory, signed “Chatain.” Backed with white kid leather and set in a simple ornamental oval frame with watch-crystal type pillowed/beveled glass. Very likely painted as a copy of another painting, as a souvenir.
Oval portrait of a dark-haired lady dressed in the Italian fashion, watercolor on ivory, unsigned.
Portrait of Marie Antionette with a rose, signed "A.T." gouache on ivory backed with white kid leather, in gilt wood frame.
Portrait of Marie Antionette in an apricot dress, unsigned watercolor on ivory. This painting is much smaller and older than its elaborate frame, which dates from the late 1870's.
Very fine and pretty portrait of a young girl, gouache on bone ivory, signed "Gericault 1812" backed with white kid leather, in its original simple brass frame.
By far my favorite of this group, "Lady Smitson" as this is labeled on the back, is wearing the fashion of the 1780's and painted with a rare amount of texture, recalling the English School style. Signed "Gram" and dated "80" on reverse, and set into an elaborate frame.
Lady Smitson is so realistically painted that I am sure this is not a portrait of Marie Antionette, but of lady dressed in her style.
Click any image to view at larger size.
Want to know more about miniatures?
Read here about my obsession with Miniature Eye Portraits
Elle Shushan in Philedelphia has a fine business collecting and selling miniatures.
Check out this huge on line gallery of a number of collections on this extremely informative site: "Artists and Ancestors"
I will be posting the entire collection in sections here as I have time.
Some of this first group of paintings were set aside for my niece in honor of her 21st birthday.
Portrait of Marie Antionette in a green dress, goauche on ivory, signed “Chatain.” Backed with white kid leather and set in a simple ornamental oval frame with watch-crystal type pillowed/beveled glass. Very likely painted as a copy of another painting, as a souvenir.
Oval portrait of a dark-haired lady dressed in the Italian fashion, watercolor on ivory, unsigned.
Portrait of Marie Antionette with a rose, signed "A.T." gouache on ivory backed with white kid leather, in gilt wood frame.
Portrait of Marie Antionette in an apricot dress, unsigned watercolor on ivory. This painting is much smaller and older than its elaborate frame, which dates from the late 1870's.
Very fine and pretty portrait of a young girl, gouache on bone ivory, signed "Gericault 1812" backed with white kid leather, in its original simple brass frame.
By far my favorite of this group, "Lady Smitson" as this is labeled on the back, is wearing the fashion of the 1780's and painted with a rare amount of texture, recalling the English School style. Signed "Gram" and dated "80" on reverse, and set into an elaborate frame.
Lady Smitson is so realistically painted that I am sure this is not a portrait of Marie Antionette, but of lady dressed in her style.Click any image to view at larger size.
Want to know more about miniatures?
Read here about my obsession with Miniature Eye Portraits
Elle Shushan in Philedelphia has a fine business collecting and selling miniatures.
Check out this huge on line gallery of a number of collections on this extremely informative site: "Artists and Ancestors"
Lynne Rutter Murals & Decorative Painting
Labels: collecting, eyes, Georgian, miniatures, portraits, Victoriana
posted by Lynne Rutter at
Sunday, June 14, 2009
3 Comments:
Let me try to wipe all the drool off of my computer now! LOL! The fourth one is my favorite, I am a sucker for the french ribbon frame with the blue stones. What a lovely collection....such amazing women in your family.
Cool collections, I'm really inspired by the beautiful frames,I'm going to work on some of them for my next engraved jewellery models. Thank you for sharing.
Cool collections, I'm really inspired by the beautiful frames,I'm going to work on some of them for my next engraved jewellery models. Thank you for sharing.
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