|
|
||||
|
|
|
|
||
|
"...the miniature, the little picture that could be covered by a kiss or hidden in the palm of the hand had an intimate and personal quality, it was a pledge of affection, often a gauge of stolen joys; it could be carried by the exiled in never so hurried a flight, could be concealed in the lid of a comfit case..." --Scribner's Magazine, February 1897 |
A Small History Of Portrait Miniatures
The art of limning dates to the early 16th century, the first English watercolor portrait miniature thought to be of Henry VIII, painted by Lucas Hornebolte, the son of a Netherlands court painter.1 John Murdoch in The English Miniature says: “Technically, this art is unrelated to any other, except in its earliest phase, when it was developed from the methods of the Flemish book illustrators. With the waning of the manuscript illumination studios, and the further technical development of the portrait miniature, even that tenuous link was broken.“ Initially miniatures were used by the court almost as currency: They were bestowed on favorites of the Queen or King, exchanged with members of foreign royalty for purposes of diplomacy, or taken to commemorate an engagement or marriage—which in that day and age were often undertaken for reasons of economics or politics, rather than sentiment. Portrait miniatures reflected the social history of the times, down through the ages. The first portrait miniatures in England were mostly painted in watercolor and bodycolor thickened with gum arabic on vellum or card, backed by playing card. Soon after, gouache replaced the bodycolor. Due to the influence of artists from the Netherlands, miniatures were sometimes also painted in oil on copper. The earliest miniaturists included Hans Holbein, Nicholas Hilliard, Isaac Oliver and Levina Terrlinc, and during the 17th century included John Hoskins, Samuel Cooper, Thomas Flatman, Richard Gibson, Nicholas Dixon, and Peter Cross. Gradually the commissioning of miniatures travelled from the royalty to the aristocrats, to eventually the gentry, and, in the late 18th century, the affluent middle class. Around 1720 the use of ivory as a base for the watercolor portrait was introduced, and quickly caught on, eventually eclipsing the use of vellum. The introduction of ivory as a support is credited to Italian miniaturist Rosalba Carriera, and the earliest known English miniature is by Bernard Lens III, painted from life in 1707 of Reverend Dr. Harris.2 Miniatures executed in enamel--primarily by foreign-born miniaturists who’d settled in London--became highly popular during the early 18th century, and during this brief period small portraits in plumbago (graphite) on vellum were executed as well. The English quickly capitalized on the translucent effect of ivory when using watercolor, and created portraits that were light and luminous. In contrast, while the European miniaturists also abandoned vellum in favor of ivory, they often continued to use watercolor and gouache, resulting in miniatures that were opaque and somewhat dark, and more reminiscent of larger oil paintings. Ivory was a difficult medium to master at first, and this may be why the English miniatures of the middle of the 18th century were very small—or modest—in size, resulting in their name, the Modest School. Executing portraits on small ovals of ivory may have aided the artists in controlling the work, until they became more experienced. At the end of the 18th century, which was considered the heyday of English portrait miniatures, the miniatures often reached over three inches in height, and displayed portraits that were light, airy, and academically polished. Principal artists of this period were Jeremiah Meyers, Richard Cosway, John Smart, Richard Crosse, George Chinnery, Samuel Shelley and George Engleheart, among others. By this time, as well, miniatures had taken on another, important aspect of usage. They were commissioned to mark almost every possible milestone in a personal life: Birth, death, engagement, marriage, distance due to career, war, or moving house. Miniatures became another sort of currency, that of the heart, reflecting the changing emphasis in society, which focused now on the personal nucleus of family life, the romantic attachment between spouses, and the new awareness of children as innocent creatures with a defined childhood, rather than being viewed as small adults. Some of the first portrait miniatures painted in America were in oil on copper, executed by the Scotsman John Smibert, circa 1735.3 Later, around 1750, John Singleton Copley also painted miniatures, initially also in oil on copper. Copley had no academic training, though he may have received some informal guidance from his printmaker step-father, Peter Pelham. He lived a short distance from Smibert’s studio, and Copley’s step-father had engraved a number of prints after Smibert’s larger oil portraits, so it is probable that Copley became familiar with Smibert’s portrait miniatures. Smibert died when Copley was age fourteen, and most likely did not have significant influence on Copley’s artistic development.4 Copley had immediate access to copper in the form of recycled printing plates from his stepfather, so painting on copper would have been a matter of using the material at hand.5 Copley used one technique very briefly: He painted on copper that had first been sheathed with gold leaf, which served to illuminate the base beneath the paint.6 Quite soon Copley moved on to painting watercolor on ivory, and the richly talented various art form of American miniatures was underway, to give birth to such native and transplanted miniaturists as Copley’s step-brother Henry Pelham, William Verstille, Nathaniel Hancock, Joseph Dunkerley, Edward Savage, William Dunlap and others of the 18th century. The first wave of miniatures in America tended to mimic those earlier British miniatures from the Modest School—small portraits in lockets or brooches. As Susan Strickler in American Portrait Miniatures says: “The earliest American miniatures by such artists as John Singleton Copley of Boston, Charles Willson Peale of Philadelphia and Henry Benbridge of South Carolina…captured in somber, opaque colors and with unidealized honesty the practicality of the colonies’ most patrician familes.” Then, as Strickler points out, “[f]ollowing the American Revolution, miniatures were painted in a more fluid, transparent technique and in paler colors, reflecting the grace and elegance of the Federal era. The British-born miniaturist Robert Field brought this style to America.” This shift in style brought a great, albeit brief, flowering of original talent in the 19th century American miniaturists. Perhaps less constrained than their English counterparts, who had 300 years of portrait miniature tradition imprinted in their practice of the technique, a number of the American miniature painters, true to their national free-thinking and rebellious character, developed highly distinctive and individual styles. The best examples of these would be Sarah Goodridge, Benjamin Trott, John Wesley Jarvis, Anson Dickinson, Anna Claypoole Peale, John Wood Dodge, John Carlin, Henry Colton Shumway, and Nathaniel Rogers, among many others. Some miniatures in the early 19th century grew larger and were painted in a rectangular format, to be displayed on walls or in cabinets. Gradually the colors grew darker and more opaque once again as the Victorian age approached. With the advent of photography and daguerreotypes, the death knell rang for this unique art form. Although there was to be a strong Revival at the turn of the century, mostly populated with female artists--including the talented artists Laura Coombs Hill, Alice Beckington, and Lucia Fuller--the era of the portrait miniature was no more.
*******************
Tid-Bits and Oddments of Interesting Information on Miniatures and Miniaturists
Number of American miniatures extant, versus number of European miniatures: An American gazetter printed in 1830 contains the following information: “ In 1820 the population of Boston was about 50,000, NYC was under 150,000, and Philadelphia was 65,000. The total population of USA went from 3.9 million in 1790 to 12.9 million in 1830.” There were, therefore, very few miniatures painted in America in comparison to Europe, especially when one considers that America was at war with England during the American Revolution, and again at war in 1814. It is likely that many American miniatures were also lost during the Civil War time period. There is a table in Harry Blattel's book on portrait miniatures showing the number of miniature painters by country. The total number of miniaturists for France, Germany, and Great Britain is in the range of 7000 to 7500 for each country--approximately 22,000 total—in addition to approximately 7000 for Austria and Italy combined, which totals 29,000. However, the total for the USA is only about 1800. Information courtesy of a private collector of American portrait miniatures.
Richard Cosway’s pigments: “There were times when [he] adopted a very curious method of technique, with regard especially to the draperies. In the possession of the author is an unfinished miniature by Cosway, which was painted for one of his pupils, especially in order to explain this technique…It is a portrait of Mrs. Robinson, and shows that large masses of colour, especially of blue and white almost unformed in appearance, were laid upon the ivory, and then were taken off by a finer brush, a process the very reverse of that usually adopted. …The colours most used in addition to the blue already referred to, were grays, sepias, blacks, carnations, and pale yellows, green being an exceptional colour, very seldom made use of. For his carnation, he seems to have made a considerable use of Indian red. His colours he obtained from Newman, of Soho Square, with whom Turner, Reynolds, Gainsborough, De Wint, and others also dealt…A peculiar, clear, keen blue, resembling Antwerp blue, is very distinctive of the master’s work. It appears almost invariably on the miniatures and is generally to be seen in the background. In the opinion of Messrs. Newmans it is a delicate tint of pure ultramariine.” Excerpted from Richard Cosway, R.A, by Dr. Williamson, 1905
George Engleheart’s pigments: “[Engleheart] obtained his vermilion, Indian ink, flake white and gamboge directly from China, and also used ultramarine, smalt, lamp black, blue black, indigo, Prussian blue, sepia, iron black, Indian red, Naples yellow, chessylite, malachite, Scheele's green on occasion, the cochineal and madder colors, and the siennas and ochres. His carmines have generally fled, and his lakes have in many cases revealed the under-painting of green; his yellows, when they were gamboge, have usually vanished more or less completely. Where he used verdigris or Scheele's green, the results have been unsatisfactory, but his greens obtained from green earth and malachite, have stood well. Engleheart kept his colors in small, specially-made round ivory boxes with screw lids. He used only ivory palettes, ivory mixing-bowls, small ivory basins in sets, and ivory brush rests.” Excerpted from The Miniature Collector, by Dr. George C. Williamson, 1920
An anecdote about Jeremiah Meyer, and his daughter: [Jeremiah Meyer] is rather well remembered by reason of his daughter, Mary Meyer. She was a very popular girl, though very much of a tomboy...when sitting to Sir Joshua, [she] managed to rip up, rather cleverly, the seams of a large pillow of feathers on which the President was in habit of reclining, and, in consequence, when he suddenly sat down to rest and to judge of the effect of the picture he had been painting, he was covered with feathers, which clung to his velvet jacket in all directions. Mary Meyer's father, who was present, is said to have been extremely angry, and to have attempted immediate corporal punishment, but the girl, who was very pretty and amusing, was rescued from her father's hands by the President, who declared it was only the act of a mischievous kitten. On another occasion, this same young lady, dressed up in male costume, stopped a solitary rider on Hounslow Heath, demanding his purse. Unluckily, the man she accosted happened to be George Engleheart, the miniature painter, who knew her parents well, and he took possession of her, and making her ride pillion behind him, handed her back to the care of her parents. Excerpted from The Miniature Collector, by Dr. George C. Williamson, 1920
The French Revolution's effect on miniatures: The French revolutionary calendar spanned the years 1792 to 1804, 1792 being Year 1, and so on. Paintings produced during this time period may bear a date reflecting this calendar. For instance, a miniature dated An 9 means Year 9--or, 1801. Not complying with the calendar meant one risked death by guillotine. As well, miniatures from this time may bear "Cnne" as part of the artist's signed name, which translates as "La Citoyenne, or Le Citoyen"--or Citizen. More information may be found at: The French Revolutionary Calendar.
Alyn Williams, English Revivial miniaturist: “It is interesting to note that in the treatise on modern miniature painting written by Alyn Williams, a president of the Royal Society of Miniature Painters, the colors especially recommended for use are viridian, ceruleum, cobalt, orange, cadmium, aureolin, rose madder and Chinese or zinc white, not one of which--with the possible very occasional use of a form of Chinese white--were in use by the painters of the eighteenth century.” Excerpted from The Miniature Collector, by Dr. George C. Williamson, 1920
American Revival miniaturist Emily Drayton Taylor, on the painting of miniatures: “The first step... is to draw in lightly
with a very hard pencil the general outline, and barely indicate
where the features are to be. Do not rub out much with india-rubber,
as that will make the ivory glossy and therefore difficult to
work on afterwards; but take some clean water and a brush, or
a fine rag on the end of a pointed stick, with which the mistake
can be safely removed....After the features are placed, take
a fine sable brush, and with a tint made of crimson lake, burnt
sienna, and neutral tint, then work them up, indicating the strong
shadows and the hair, or, rather, the general outline of the
hair masses. To get the greatest brilliancy in hair effects,
wash on the brightest colors first, then work up the deeper shadows
later. The dress or coat or drapery should then be put in, not
attempting too much at first, but rather striving for a general
effect. It is well after this to put in the flesh color, vermilion
and yellow ochre; a broad, flat wash, not quite so strong, on
the highlights on the forehead.; then broadly work in the general
mass of shadow...Work the warm tones on the upper part of the
face, and around the chin and under the lower lip some tones
of green, and a little yellow on the throat; but this all varies
with different people, just as some skins have a violet and others
a green or a yellow undertone. The upper lip may be made of a
more decided carmine, the lower of a redder shade. The hair should
be put in with broad washes, always in the direction needed,
and nearly in the value ultimately desired, keeping the shadows
warm if there is much color in the hair, and cool where the light
is high on top...In working on the hair, always make the strokes
go in the direction in which the hair lies. Hair must not look
like flesh, nor, again. A background is, though seemingly simple
and secondary, a most important factor in any portrait, and none
the less so in a miniature....The soft gray effects, shading
on either the brown, carmine, and umber, or the blue, Payne's
gray, and green, are usually satisfactory. The clouds and blue
sky so much used by Cosway and Trott are also very good, but
were rather better when back of ladies and gentlemen with powdered
hair. A light background often makes the skin appear darker.
The outdoor effects of green are most becoming to flesh, but
great care must be used in the tones of greens to keep them far
enough away, for a background should always be merely a background,
and never intrude....Work should be done from life, always, for
in no other way can a life-like reproduction or effect be attained.
The colors must be seen, not imagined.” Excerpted from Heirlooms in Miniatures, by Anne Hollingsworth Wharton, 1902 |
Copyright ©
Christine Archibald Portrait Miniatures. All rights reserved.
Photography by alanhostetterdp.com
WebSite Services by Studio2net.com