tokens of affection or as a means of mourning after the death of a loved one. The miniatures’ relationship to costume and fashion is complex. When worn on the body as jewelry the miniature can be seen as fashion. Conversely, the clothing depicted in the miniature can reflect the actual fashions worn during a time period. In both cases, clothing helped to indicate the status and wealth of the subject. The miniatures can also reflect an accurate history of hairstyles common in each era. The subjects of miniatures rarely include the lower classes who could not afford to have their visages recorded.
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ost miniaturists depicted a three-quarter or frontal view of the sitter. Copying large portraits was not unusual but the miniaturist, with limited space, often chose to focus on a detail, as seen in the Italian miniature derived from the self-portrait of the late 18th-century artist Louise-Elisabeth Vigée-Lebrun (Miniature 14).
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n the 18th and 19th centuries miniaturists typically did not portray their sitters in formal dress. The Louise-Elisabeth Vigée-Lebrun, exception is the portrayal of royalty. In this exhibition Self-Portrait, 1790 we see the Empress Josephine, wife of Napoleon Bonaparte, portrayed in formal attire with a white and gold decorated gown; a bejeweled necklace; emerald earrings and a ruby and emerald diadem, or crown (Miniature 15). The Countess Potaki, in contrast, is seen with a simple blue ribbon in her hair (Miniature 16). Although primarily seen in worn jewelry and cabinet frames, miniatures were incorporated into a number of small scale objects from the 17th century on, including snuff boxes, china, and sword hilts. The late 19th-century Carnet de Bal (a dance card holder), (Miniature 17) is a good example of the versatility of the medium and another
Nadar, Sarah Bernhardt, 1865, carte-de-visite
example of the miniature as personal adornment. The rage for miniature portraits that swept the 18th century ended abruptly in the 19th century with the birth of photography. The time-consuming, labor-intensive, detailed art of the miniature gave way to a medium that was quick and affordable. The carte-de-visite and cabinet photograph formats were the first to effectively supersede the role that the miniature had played. Patented by the French photographer André AdolpheEugène Disdéri in 1854, these small 4 x 2-1/2 inch images first took Paris, then England, then the United States by storm. Portable and intimate, like the miniature before it, the carte-de-visite became an accepted medium for social exchange as well as a means of promoting cults of celebrity.
What is the legacy of the miniature portrait? What other forms have fulfilled its function of affirming friendships, declaring political loyalty and expressing love and affection in the 20th and 21st centuries? Campaign buttons, school pictures, yearbooks, wallet photographs, and now daily updates on Facebook, Instagram and social networking sites might be seen as a legacy of the miniature portrait.
ADDITIONAL READING
Resources on portrait miniatures are drawn from the following sources which are recommended for further reading. Aronson, Julie and Marjorie E. Wieseman. Perfect Likeness: European and American Portrait Miniatures from the Cincinnati Art Museum (Cincinnati: Cincinnati Art Museum, 2006). Brilliant, Richard. Portraiture (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1991). Lloyd, Stephen and Kim Sloan. The Intimate Portrait: Drawings, Miniatures and Pastels from Ramsay to Lawrence (Edinburgh: National Galleries of Scotland, 2008). Lloyd, Stephen. Richard Cosway (London: Unicorn Press, 2005). Murdoch, John, Jim Murrell, Patrick Noon, and Roy Strong. The English Miniature (New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 1981). Pointon, Marcia, “Surrounded with Brilliants’: Miniature Portraits in Eighteenth-Century England.” Art Bulletin Vol. 83 (March 2001): 48-71 Reynolds, Graham. European Portrait Miniatures (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1988). West, Shearer. Portraiture (Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press, 2004).
EXHIBITION CHECKLIST
CASE I 1. Unknown Flemish Artist Portrait of Princess Elisabeth of France (after Frans Pourbus the Younger), 19th century Watercolor on ivory Gift of Larry Hartford and Torleif Tandstad, 2016.1.101 2. Unknown Italian Artist Title unknown (Madonna and Child), 18th century Watercolor on vellum Gift of Larry Hartford and Torleif Tandstad, 2016.1.107 3. Unknown French Artist Title unknown (portrait of Comte d'Artois), ca. 1767 Watercolor on ivory Gift of Larry Hartford and Torleif Tandstad, 2016.1.15 4. Unknown Austrian Artist Title unknown (portrait of a bearded artist), 19th century Watercolor on ivory Gift of Larry Hartford and Torleif Tandstad, 2016.1.96 CASE 2 5. Attributed to Louis-Antoine Collas France (1775-1856) Title unknown (portrait of gentleman), date unknown Watercolor on ivory Gift of Larry Hartford and Torleif Tandstad, 2016.1.104 Framed together with: Unknown French Artist Title unknown (portrait of a woman in a white gown), date unknown Watercolor on ivory Gift of Larry Hartford and Torleif Tandstad, 2016.1.103 6. Jean Baptiste Jacques Augustin France (1759-1832) Title unknown (portrait of noblewoman), 1817 Watercolor on ivory Gift of Larry Hartford and Torleif Tandstad, 2016.1.86 7. Friedrich Heinrich Füger Germany-Austria (1751-1818) Title unknown (portrait of a lady), date unknown Watercolor on ivory Gift ofLarry Hartford and Torleif Tandstad, 2016.1.90
12. Andrew Plimer England (1763-1837) Portrait of Miss Lockwood, 1788
14. I. Scheggi Italy (20th century) Title unknown (after a self-portrait of Louise-Elisabeth Vigee Lebrun), date unknown
15. Regnol France (19th century) Empress Josephine of France, date unknown
EUROPEAN PORTRAIT MINIATURES FROM THE HARTFORD-TANDSTAD COLLECTION
All images except those from the Hartford-Tandstad Collection courtesy ARTstor Digital Library. Hartford-Tandstad photographs by Gary Huibregtse.
8. Edouard Clemens Fechner Germany (1799-1861) Self Portrait, date unknown Watercolor on ivory Gift of Larry Hartford and Torleif Tandstad, 2016.1.89 9. Unknown Indian Artist A Portrait of Suraj ud Daula, Delhi, India, ca. 1830 Watercolor on ivory Gift of Larry Hartford and Torleif Tandstad, 2016.1.106
CASE 3 10. Unknown French Artist Portrait of Mademoiselle Chaplin, date unknown Watercolor on ivory Gift of Larry Hartford and Torleif Tandstad, 2016.1.105 11. Attributed to Richard Cosway England (1742-1821) Lady Augusta Murray, date unknown Watercolor on ivory Gift of Larry Hartford and Torleif Tandstad, 2016.1.88
GALLERY GUIDE
12. Andrew Plimer England (1763-1837) Portrait of Miss Lockwood, 1788 Watercolor on ivory, with hair and seed pears mounted onto the frame reverse Gift of Larry Hartford and Torleif Tandstad, 2016.1.94 13. C. Noel England (19th Century) Portrait of Adela Plimmer daughter of Nathaniel Plimmer as a Child, date unknown Watercolor on ivory Gift of Larry Hartford and Torleif Tandstad, 2016.1.100 CASE 4 14. I. Scheggi Italy (20th century) Title Unknown (after a self-portrait of LouiseElisabeth Vigee Lebrun), date unknown Watercolor on ivory Gift of Larry Hartford and Torleif Tandstad, 2016.1.132 15. Regnol France (19th century) Empress Josephine of France, date unknown Watercolor on ivory Gift of Larry Hartford and Torleif Tandstad, 2016.1.95 16. Unknown French Artist Countess Sophia Potocki, 19th century Watercolor on ivory Gift of Larry Hartford and Torleif Tandstad, 2016.1.102 17. Unknown Russian Artist Title Unknown (Carnet de Bal), 19th century Watercolor on ivory Gift of Larry Hartford and Torleif Tandstad, 2016.1.134 18. Unknown English Artist Portrait of Mrs. Sarah Siddons, date unknown Watercolor on ivory Gift of Larry Hartford and Torleif Tandstad, 2016.1.99
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iniature portraiture thrived in England and continental Europe from the 16th century through the mid-19th century when the advent of photography led to its demise. Two separate artistic traditions influenced the early development of the miniature; first, the art of manuscript illumination with small-scale paintings in borders. The word miniature did not always refer to diminutive scale seen in these precedents but Dutch School, Master of the Dark instead relates to the Latin word minium, a red lead Eyes pigment used in manuscript illumination. Workshop, illuminated manuscript on vellum, ca. 1500
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second source is the revival of an antique tradition, the portrait medal or medallion. During the Italian Renaissance, the new cult of personality led to a revival of portraiture. The circular format, size, and portability of the medallion became a prototype for the miniaturist’s art, as did the medallion’s role in asserting political authority and allegiance. The portrait miniature came into existence, almost simultaneously, in the French court of François I and the English court of Henry VII in the mid 1500s. Art historian Stephen Lloyd tells us that early on, subjects came from a very small group of social elites – royal families and their courts – and that the portraits were presented and exchanged as diplomatic gifts, tokens of loyalty, and to ensure political alliances through marriages.
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he portrait miniature came into existence, almost simultaneously, in the French court of François I and the English court of Henry VII in the mid 1500s. Art historian Stephen Lloyd tells us that early on, subjects came from a very small group of social elites – royal families and their courts – and that the portraits were presented and exchanged as diplomatic gifts, tokens of loyalty, and to ensure political alliances through German, Medallion with Portrait marriages. of Emperor Charles V, ca. 1521 Among the earliest artists to create miniatures for the English court was Hans Holbein, who adapted images from his full-scale portraits. The 19th-century example (Miniature 1) in this exhibition also derives from a fullscale portrait now located in the Uffizi Gallery in Florence by Flemish painter Frans Pourbus the Younger, depicting the young Princess Elizabeth of France. In keeping with the tradition of the illuminated manuscript, miniatures were originally painted with water-based paints on vellum. Shortly after 1700 the portrait miniature underwent a revolutionary technical change. The replacement of vellum with ivory can be directly tied to the international economy. In the sixteenth century, Europe entered into a lucrative ivory trade with Africa, and the taste for this import exploded. This new material provided artists with both challenges and opportunities.
At first, artists stubbornly clung to the vellum techniques, techniques that proved unsatisfactory with ivory’s oily, non-absorbent surface. By 1750 artists adopted new techniques. Ivories were sanded with abrasives and degreased with a variety of materials including vinegar and garlic. Gum arabic was routinely added to water-based pigments, producing a new luminosity but also a tendency for paint to peel and crack. Some painters found that the addition of honey and sugar prevented this problem. Despite these modifications, the apparatus that artists used changed little. Small easels with drawers to hold equipment and Horace Walpole, Reproduction of the Tribune with rosewood traditional squirrel-hair brushes remained critical to the cabinet of miniatures, 1747-1763 miniature artist’s arsenal. In England’s Elizabethan and Stuart Courts miniatures were traditionally presented in one of two formats: either worn on the body or preserved and exhibited in a cabinet. These cabinet miniatures, typically housed in frames, could be displayed on walls or in small easel-frames. This treatment reflects the aristocratic desire for acquiring and collecting precious objects. One of the most influential figures to develop a collecting practice was the 18th-century Earl of Orford, Horace Walpole. At his neo-Gothic estate “Strawberry Hill” Walpole designed a special rosewood cabinet to hold his collection of over 100 miniatures,
1. Unknown Flemish Artist Portrait of Princess Elisabeth of France (after Frans Pourbus the Younger), 19th century
6. Jean Baptiste Jacques Augustin France (1759-1832) Title unknown (portrait of noblewoman), 1817
including works by leading artists and images of the English and French monarchs, their families, and their courtiers.
fortunes and Indian artists, with a tradition of small-scale painting already in place, produced portraits for English and local collectors (Miniature 9).
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n the 18th and 19th centuries miniatures were produced with increasing frequency and artists gained academic opportunities. Jean-Baptiste-Jacques Augustin was active in Parisian circles after 1781 (Miniature 6). His facility with the miniature led to a royal appointment as First Painter in Miniature (premier peintre en miniature) to Louis XVIII of France. Further, Augustin established an academy to teach miniature techniques. By the mid-1700s upgraded training, academic instruction, a system of awards, and exhibition opportunities -- all specific to the miniaturists’ practice -- are evident in both France and England, attesting to their importance in the artistic world. Augustin’s background also points to the need for a broader understanding of miniatures. Long considered an English art form, new scholarship clearly illustrates the importance of this format throughout Europe. For example, Heinrich Friedrich Füger had a lucrative career in Dresden, Vienna, and Rome (Miniature 7). Edouard Clemens Fechner worked in his native Dresden and in Paris (Miniature 8). Another contribution to a broader understanding of the global production is recent scholarship on images that reflect European colonization. The British love of portraiture spawned professional interest in colonial settings in the Americas, and especially in India. After 1770 a large number of English miniaturists traveled to India to seek their
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9. Unknown Indian Artist A Portrait of Suraj ud Daula, Delhi, India, ca. 1830
10. Unknown French Artist Portrait of Mademoiselle Chaplin, date unknown
y the 18th century wearing miniatures had become a fashionable social practice. Art historian Marcia Pointon marks the beginning of this trend with the English Queen Charlotte’s donning of images of her husband King George III on rings, bracelets, and pendants. Concurrently, miniatures became encased in elaborate jewelry settings surrounded by gemstones, including seed pearls and diamonds. Evidence of this trend is seen in full-scale portraits, as well as the painted ivory in this exhibition (Miniature 10), where fashionable women adorned themselves with images of family, friends, and lovers. As an object of personal adornment the miniature can be thought of as the most intimate of portraits. Placed against the body, the bejeweled miniature was at once a public statement of status and a private token of affection. The necessity for these portable images increased with international commerce and diplomacy of the colonial period. Military campaigns abroad, mercantile expansion, as well as increased tourism best exemplified in the Grand Tour separated families and lovers. Numerous texts attest to commissions for miniature portraits before long separations. Tokens of affection, the miniatures acted like visual love letters, intimate images that brought a loved one closer through sight and touch.
One of the best known and most successful miniaturists in 18th- and 19thcentury England, Richard Cosway, (Miniature 11), made a name for himself as a master of the intimate lover’s portrait. Known for his technical prowess and innovations, Cosway made portraits that could be worn as a way of communing with an absent beloved. Stylistically his portraits are marked by an enlargement of the sitter’s eyes, a stippling technique for facial details, and virtuoso brushwork in the treatment of clothing and background. In 1781, Andrew Plimer settled in London as a valet to Cosway. Recognizing Plimer’s artistic talents, Cosway introduced him to miniature techniques. In 1786 he set up his own London studio. Like his mentor, Plimer was known for his ability to exploit the luminosity of the ivory surface. Their careers also correspond with the expansion of patronage for the art form. Once associated exclusively with the royal elite, miniatures became part of the commercial market, available to the upper and bourgeois classes and production increased exponentially to meet this new demand.
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n the reverse of the Plimer portrait (Miniature 12) we see a characteristic 18th- and 19th-century addition. Locks of the subject’s hair are woven and mounted into the frame, here embellished with tiny seed pearls forming the sitter’s initials. Portraits with hairwork were used either as intimate
12. Andrew Plimer England (1763-1837) Portrait of Miss Lockwood, 1788