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The Metropolitan Museum of Art has the largest and most comprehensive collection of American portrait miniatures in the world and has published a comprehensive catalog of the collection that spans two centuries, from the Colonial era to the present.
The catalog presents chronologically 582 American portrait miniatures, representing work by 156 named artists. Forty-eight of the miniatures are by unidentified artists. The paintings are attributed based on the style of the known works of the artist. Artist biographies are included, and where possible the sitter's name and date of the portrait are given. A sizable number of 20th-century portraits are in the collection and catalog, and the quality of the work is superb. Every painting, and in most instances the casework, is illustrated. Not all portraits are reproduced in color. The catalog also supplies cross references to Dale T. Johnson's book American Portrait Miniatures in the Manney Collection (1990) with notes about title or attribution changes.
This is a collection catalog, not an exhibition catalog. The American Paintings galleries are currently closed for construction, and when they reopen in 2011, there will be a permanent space for a rotating exhibition of miniatures. Because of their fragility and sensitivity to light, the miniatures are stored in a vault at the Met. Displays from the collection have been relatively infrequent, so there are highlights of the collection that have been a well-kept secret.
This complete chronology of miniature art in America begins with works by Jeremiah Theus (circa 1758) and Mary Roberts (1752-58). Both artists were based in Charleston, South Carolina. Over the next half-century the art of painting miniature portraits flourished in Philadelphia, New York, and Boston.
Carrie Rebora Barratt's essay gives a brief overview of the history of miniature painting and the collection at the Met. The first miniature to enter the collection, in 1883, was a portrait of George Washington by Charles Willson Peale. It was painted in 1777 in Philadelphia as a gift for Martha Washington. The miniature is of General Washington in his military uniform at about age 45. The likeness was housed in a bracelet case that she could fasten to her wrist with plaited hair.
Miniature portraits have been celebrated at the Met in only two exhibitions. The first was put together by Harry Wehle in 1927. In 1990 Tokens of Affections: The Portrait Miniature in America coincided with the publication of a book by researcher and de facto curator Dale T. Johnson about Gloria Manney's private assemblage of miniatures. Tokens of Affection traveled to the National Museum of American Art in Washington, D.C., and the Art Institute of Chicago and encouraged new scholarship. It was the first major exhibition and catalog of portrait miniatures at the Met since Wehle's exhibition and accompanying catalog. This new catalog "rests on the unique contributions" of Johnson's research.
Johnson died in 1994, and in 1996 the Met acquired Manney's collection of more than 300 portrait miniatures that included signed pieces as well as masterworks by unknown artists. The star of the collection is John Singleton Copley's self-portrait that he painted for his wife at the time of their marriage in 1769. Among the strangest in the collection is Sarah Goodridge's Beauty Revealed (1828), a self-portrait of the artist's breasts painted as a gift for her intimate friend Senator Daniel Webster.
A fund set up in Johnson's memory has supported the purchase of exceptional pieces over the last decade. Martha Fleischman also has funded the purchase of five portrait miniatures, including Pierre Henri's portrait of his family, which includes a portrait miniature within a portrait miniature—Henri's wife wears a portrait of him.
Lori Zabar, research associate at the American Wing, writes about the cases that have ensured the miniatures' survival and enhanced their appearance. She asserts that the pendants, bracelets, rings, brooches, frames, and cases in which they are mounted present a visual timeline.
Zabar begins with a brief description of how miniatures were cased. Miniatures were usually painted on ivory and secured in bezels or mats and covered with a convex glass lens to secure and protect the ivory from moisture and dirt. Zabar explains that the thin sheet of ivory was flattened and trimmed to a designated shape, and the artist would affix it to a sheet of laid paper that allowed the painter to move it while painting. When the miniature was finished the artist attached it to a glass lens using a "goldbeater's skin," a narrow strip of translucent animal intestine that acts as a natural sealant, a kind of organic Scotch Tape. Then it would be mounted in a metal case. Traveling cases further protected miniatures mounted as pendants or bracelets from breakage and exposure.
According to Zabar, "Early eighteenth-century American portrait miniatures were generally mounted as jewelry and stored in small hinged, oval, leather-covered, wood traveling cases that could be kept in a pocket or displayed open on a table top." Most were oval pendants with a hanger at the top so that women could suspend them from ribbons, pearls, or gold chains around their necks, or they would pin them over their hearts.
Zabar details the changes of the case styles over time. Later in the 18th century the mounts became more complicated. The bezel was often set with gemstones, pearls, or paste jewels or was beaded or given a rope decoration. The backs were more ornamented too with a small oval or circular glazed compartment to hold a lock of the loved one's hair, sometimes plaited or embellished with gold or seed pearls. Sometimes initials were laid on the hair, or the case was engraved or decorated. The backs of some imported cases incorporated blue glass backed with foil that created a "shimmering quality."
In the 1790's artists began to paint on larger pieces of ivory that required larger mounts. Painters from the Continent introduced a circular format. In the early 1800's, "miniatures were also being framed as if they were cabinet paintings to be hung on the wall or viewed from a short distance." The frames were rectangular ebonized wood or papier-mâché. The miniature was mounted under glass with a metal bezel, usually gilded brass. The underside of the bezel secured the miniature to the frame with a sawtooth flange.
These frames were used from 1815 to 1860. In the 1820's and '30's frames had cast metal circular hangers attached with mounts in the form of flowers or acorns. One example in the collection frames The Artist's Family by Pierre Henri, circa 1800, mentioned earlier. From the 1820's the size of the miniatures increased; some became rectangular and were put in small versions of carved, gessoed, and gilded frames.
In 1820-40 a new case style appeared first in Philadelphia and then became popular across the country. Cases were cast in copper alloy in the form of floriated and foliated wreaths in high relief and then gilded. A similar style of locket popular in Scotland may have been the source of the design. In the late 1840's the cases were similar to those used for daguerreotypes.
Less common but attractive were the watch case-style mounts. One example is decorated on the exterior with an engine-turned design and has a ring hanger. Another rare example from the second quarter of the 19th century is a festoon necklace with nine round portraits of Thomas Seir Cummings's children painted and assembled as gift for his wife in 1841.
After the Civil War, photography had overtaken miniature painting. Inspired by the Colonial Revival, in the 1890's a group of young artists revived the art of painting miniatures. A group of ten miniature painters formed the American Society of Miniature Painters. They painted in a contemporary style using the materials and tools of the earlier miniature painters and encased their work in a variety of pendants and brooches or framed them like oil paintings.
The miniature revival continued through the 1950's. Illustrated in the essay and catalog are examples framed in Arts and Crafts frames as well as in Beaux Arts or American Renaissance frames. One Italian Renaissance example illustrated with the essay is in the style of Stanford White. A pendant example also shows the influence of the Italian Renaissance. The bezel of the pendant is die-rolled with a scrolling foliate design against a black background. Pendants from this period usually had fitted cases and easel frames.
Zabar indicates that few cases or frames can be attributed to specific makers. There are no pattern books or engravings of mounts, and the mounts were rarely signed until the late 19th century. Occasionally a trade card inserted in the mount to make an airtight fit would indicate the name of the silversmith, jeweler, or framer, presumably the seller, but not necessarily the maker.
There is one locket case in the Metropolitan's collection that is signed. William Henry Hopkins (1817-after 1891) of Providence, Rhode Island, scratched his name inside a case made in 1833. Another signed example is a marked presentation gold frame for a portrait of Dr. Francis Kinloch Huger painted by Charles Fraser in 1825. It is signed by Fletcher and Gardiner, Philadelphia silversmiths.
A few firms, such as Taylor & Hinsdale in New York, 1804-30, specialized in selling mounts for miniatures. The Peale family in Philadelphia patronized Messieurs Williams, Goldsmiths and Jewellers, but it is not certain whether these firms made their cases or sold imported ones.
Miniature painter Ezra Ames (1768-1836) of Albany, New York, owned an English pattern book for hair devices, and Samuel Folwell (1764-1813) of Philadelphia probably owned one too.
The color illustrations of the front and the back of miniatures are one of the strengths of this book. All of the miniatures in significant cases or frames are pictured in them, and it is noted which cases or frames are replacements. Most of the portraits are pictured in their actual size, and dimensions are given.
One excellent case illustration shows the back of a miniature by Henry Benbridge (1743-1812) that was probably painted in celebration of the sitter's betrothal. Two lovebirds, a cupid's crown, two hearts, and the words "Love & Friendship" were executed in hair, hair pigment, chopped hair, gilded chopped hair, and gold-colored metal on an ivory plaque.
Zabar illustrates various rectangular traveling cases for miniatures; some are similar to cases used for daguerreotypes. One example was made in Philadelphia and has a red leather exterior embossed with flowers and stamped with gold and is lined with green velvet in the interior. In the trade, this is known as a "Christmas case." Housed in this case is a portrait of a woman, circa 1830, with "M.T. Webb" engraved on the back of the mount. It is by a yet to be identified painter. It also is included in the section of works by unidentified artists at the back of the catalog.
The Webb portrait is a gift to the collection in honor of the authors by Philadelphia dealer Elle Shushan. The writers credit her in the acknowledgments for giving generously of her knowledge and for her "uncanny ability to recall the slightest details about the most obscure artists and sitters." She helped "make discoveries, spot misattributions, identify replacement casework," and she read the manuscript. She gave two miniatures to the collection.
American Portrait Miniatures in The Metropolitan Museum of Art is the last word on the subject; it will be the standard reference used to identify artists and date the cases of miniature portraits. It is a companion to European Miniatures in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, coauthored by Katharine Baetjer and Graham Reynolds in 1996.
