Elle Shushan

www.PortraitMiniatures.com

[elleshushan]

In 1805, 19 year old Maria Bellett Roberts left her parents’ substantial home in Somerset to travel to Calcutta with her brother. Possibly seeking adventure, but more likely seeking a husband in a country where the percentage of men to women was sometimes calculated at 40 to 1, it took Maria only a year to become the wife of Colonel Marmaduke Browne of the Royal Artillery. Mrs. Browne, a glittering hostess, often entertained George Chinnery, India’s most celebrated portraitist. Already a talented amateur artist, Mrs. Browne began taking instruction from Chinnery, quickly becoming his most accomplished student. She collaborated with Chinnery on his “Treatise” describing the theory and practice of painting. His letters to her (British Museum) spell out his methods for painting miniatures. As a result of this enviable training, Maria, who often signed her works “Mrs. Marmaduke Browne,” became one of the most popular miniaturists in Calcutta. Her account book listing her sitters was primarily a list of her friends (whom she rarely charged) — Sir Charles & Lady D’Oyly, Lord Moira and Mrs. Siddons. After giving birth to 4 children, with her health failing, in 1823 Maria Bellett Browne ended her India adventure, returning to her family in Somerset, where she died in 1828. *************************************** Jane Eliza Russell, later Lady Russell by Maria Bellett Browne, 1816. *************************************** One of a select collection of portrait miniatures by British artists working in India to be exhibited at TEFAF New York Fall, opening one month from today at the Park Avenue Armory. *************************************** @tefaf_art_fair @parkavearmory #TEFAF #TEFAF2019 #TEFAFNY #ParkAvenueArmory #PortraitMiniature #PortraitMiniatures #MiniaturePortrait #MiniaturePortraits #AngloIndianArt #BritishArtistsinIndia #HistoricArt #elleshushan #Harp #BritishMiniature #JaneElizaRussell #LadyRussell #MariaBellettBrowne https://www.instagram.com/p/B3FxwwxnwyG/?igshid=9hz5g8fvuvmn

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“Eccentric genius, poet, engraver, painter and mystic,” William Blake was everything but a portraitist, declaring “Portrait Painting is the direct contrary to Designing & Historical Painting in every respect.” Dismissive and perhaps defensive. Blake’s miniatures (who even knew he painted miniatures?) are on view in the dazzling exhibition of Blake’s work at Tate Britain. All his miniatures appear to have been grudgingly executed for financially important patrons who pushed him. Poet William Hayley commissioned Blake to copy Romney’s portrait of William Cowper (image 3) in miniature. It is certainly the best of the group. But Blake complained about Hayley to Thomas Butts (image 1) “...he thinks he can turn me into a portrait painter as he did poor Romney.” Thomas and Elizabeth Butts (image 2) kept Blake solvent for decades, purchasing as many as 200 works from the artist, including these portraits. They must have been pleased Blake was also a visionary. *************************************** @tatebritainlondon @britishmuseum The British Museum - images 1 & 2, @cowpnewtmuseum The Cowper and Newton Museum - image 3. *************************************** #PortraitMiniature #PortraitMiniatures #MiniaturePortraits #MiniaturePortrait #HistoricArt #elleshushan #BritishArt #BritishPortrait #BritishPortraitMiniature #WilliamBlake #WilliamBlakeArt (at Tate Britain) https://www.instagram.com/p/B2h0veznJCD/?igshid=1r36jcuq85h28

[elleshushan]

“Miss Brunton of Covent Garden Theatre, was married to the Earl of Craven, at seven in the evening at Craven House, and the following day the happy pair set off to Coombe Abbey.” Jackpot! A comic actress of some renown, Louisa Bruton replaced the fabled Covent Garden luminary Elizabeth Farren, who had retired from the stage to become the Countess of Derby. Louisa purposely followed all of Farren’s footsteps. The Brutons were a minor (extremely minor) theatrical dynasty of which Louisa was the most famous. She went to great lengths to stress that she was an artiste, not an actress (read courtesan) just as Farren had. Perhaps somewhat less convincing - note the ensemble in the second portrait - she still managed to catch her own Earl, retiring from the theatre after only 4 years. She and her sportsman husband - the Earl, a founder of the Royal Yacht Squadron, named his yacht ‘Louisa’ - raised their family at his country estate. She lived on there in seclusion for 35 years after his death, sponsoring local charities - the perfect personification of an aristocrat. Louisa will return to public performances at TEFAF New York Fall - opening November 1 at the Park Avenue Armory. ************************************* Though almost all known images of Louisa are either by or after Samuel John Stump, it appears likely that the majority were based on the second image, that of Louisa on leopard skin, signed and dated 1807. Upon Louisa catching the Count, Stump had to quickly clean up her act, so he dressed her in diaphanous blue and lace, befitting her soon-to-be station. ************************************* By Henry Pierce Bone, enamel on copper, inscribed, signed & dated 1837. ************************************* @tefaf_art_fair #TEFAF #TEFAFNY #TEFAFNYFall #TEFAFNewYorkFall #TEFAFNewYorkFall2019 #ParkAvenueArmory #PortraitMiniature #PortraitMiniatures #MiniaturePortrait #MiniaturePortraits #HistoricArt #CountessofCraven #LouisaBruton #LouisaCountessofCraven #BritishPortrait #elleshushan #BritishPortraitMiniature #HenryPierceBone #SamuelJohnSturmp https://www.instagram.com/p/B2AQqNLH7Lt/?igshid=w92tghxmozat

[elleshushan]

The message of miniatures can be intriguing. At first glance - simply an aristocrat of a certain age draped in satin and lace, sporting a rope of colossal pearls. But the portrait says more. Purple was the color worn in the second year of mourning. The black feathers crowning her piled-high hair are the confirmation. Does her faithful spaniel evince her fidelity to the husband she lost? And if there is no husband, then who was the recipient of the diamond-set locket? Even the artist remains a mystery. A favorite of the upper-classes in the 1770’s, he signed his miniatures with the letter “V”. His full name has been lost to history - he is now known only as “The Artist V”. *************************************** By the Artist V, circa 1775. From the spectacular collection of the Tansey Miniatures Foundation, Celle, Germany. *************************************** #TanseyMiniaturesFoundation #TanseyMiniatures #PortraitMiniature #PortraitMiniatures #MiniaturePortrait #MiniaturePortraits #elleshushan #WearableArt #BritishArt #BritishPortraiture #BritishPortraitMiniature #HistoricArt #TheArtistV #JewelryWithAFace #JewelleryWithAFace #DiamondLocket https://www.instagram.com/p/B1ruEuAH3Y_/?igshid=1uimbg454123j

[elleshushan]

So obsessed was miniaturist Samuel Andrews with the work of John Smart that he moved into a house in India in which Smart had resided. After being refused official passage, Andrews utilized one of the many devious methods to get to India, arriving in Madras in 1791. In Madras he produced lively portraits so like Smart’s that it is occasionally difficult to differentiate. But, in 1798, Andrews moved to Calcutta. There he developed his own unique style - profiles resembling carved marble, placed against a dark background. Stunning. The demand was great; his patrons for those unparalleled portraits included Lord Cornwallis and Marquis Wellesley (later the Duke of Wellington). Andrews never made it home to Ireland. He died in Patna in 1807 at the age of 40. ************************************** Samuel Andrews, signed & dated Calcutta, 1804. Provenance: The Duke of Atholl, Blair Castle. *************************************** #PortraitMiniature #PortraitMiniatures #HistoricArt #MiniaturePortraits #elleshushan #SamuelAndrews #BritishArtistsinIndia #Profile https://www.instagram.com/p/B1KQ64Ln7ul/?igshid=10qbpwyljmxlr

[elleshushan]

Sarah Yocum McFadden Boyle - a mouthful of names for an artist - and yes, she used every one of them. A native of Philadelphia, she studied with Howard Pyle. Pyle produced the best - N.C. Wyeth, Jessie Wilcox Smith, Violet Oakley. You can see the influence though she never achieved their celebrity. But “Little Sleepy Dragonfly” did. A star all on his own, Dragonfly has even been turned into stained glass. Held in the collection of the Pennsylvania Society of Miniature Painters, “Little Sleepy Dragonfly” was gifted to the Philadelphia Museum of Art with many other stellar pieces in 1954. ************************************* Sarah Yocum McFadden Boyle (active 1909-1940), “Little Sleepy Dragonfly” 1928. @philamuseum #PhiladelphiaMuseumofArt *********************************** #PortraitMiniature #PortraitMiniatures #MinaturePortrait #MiniaturePortraits #AmericanArt #elleshushan #HistoricArt #AmericanPortraitMiniature #SleepyLittleDragonfly (at Philadelphia Museum of Art) https://www.instagram.com/p/B0mKVpWH6FV/?igshid=gvjpvuy8nhlv

[elleshushan]

What a Stud! Really! Look at ‘Piper’ proudly admiring his velvet encased silver stud medal. On the right side, printed in gold, the legend crows “Piper: No 4653 K.C.S.B (Kennel Club Stud Book).” This Top Dog earned that silver collar and lead. And - an extra treat (Piper would probably have preferred a juicy chop) a portrait by J. W. Bailey, celebrated for his portraits of Queen Victoria’s pups. ************************************* ‘Piper’ by John William Bailey (1831-1914) enamel on copper, signed & dated 1880. ************************************* #FromTheArchives #J.W.Bailey #PortraitMiniature #PortraitMiniatures #MiniaturePortrait #MiniaturePortraits #HistoricArt #JohnWilliamBailey #elleshushan #DogsofInstagram #BritishPortrait #BritishDogPortrait #KennelClubStudBook #Stud #EnamelPortrait #DogPortrait https://www.instagram.com/p/B0UDkAyn8iX/?igshid=iya19a5j6uw5

[elleshushan]

Cringingly cute, aren’t they? Meet the Tiplady children, rural but prosperous and eager to display their splendid possessions. Without easy access to London’s academic miniaturists, the local artist was called in. Possessing little training but brimming with homegrown appeal, he commemorated both the children and their substantial riches - signing proudly “R. Buxton pinxt, 1812.” Sadly for artist Buxton - his provincial charm was not enough to earn him a place in the lexicon of British portraitists. https://www.instagram.com/p/BztebX3niOL/?igshid=1agm6io0uajaa

[elleshushan]

The first of the French emigre artists to arrive in the New Republic, Pierre Henri remained itinerant his entire life. After surviving a shipwreck in the West Indies, in 1788, Henri appeared in New York City. Though his trip to America had taken 12 years, he advertised as “lately arrived from France.” Henri was adroit at sniffing out important clientele, so when, in 1789, the government moved to Philadelphia, Henri followed. There he found a wife then started a family before again hitting the road. Between 1790 and 1820, Henri worked in Alexandria, New York, Baltimore, Richmond, New Orleans and Charleston, advertising that he “takes likenesses in miniature, from the size of a small ring to that of the largest locket.” Unique among miniature painters then working in America, Henri adroitly created groups of sitters. In about 1800, probably to accompany him on his journeys, Henri executed this delightful portrait of his family, with a self-portrait in miniature within the miniature, the whole on 3 3/8 inches (8.6 cm) wide. ******************************** See this enchanting portrait in the magnificent new exhibition “Jewelry for America” - American Wing, Metropolitan Museum of Art. ******************************** @metmuseum @metamericanwing #BethCarverWees #PortraitMiniature #PortraitMiniatures #MiniaturePortrait #MiniaturePortraits #WearableArt #AmericanArt #elleshushan #HistoricArt #AmericanArt #AmericanPortraitMiniature #JewelryWithAFace #MetMuseum #MetropolitanMuseumofArt #AmericanWing #PierreHenri #FrenchEmigreArtist #FamilyPortait #FromtheArchives (at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York) https://www.instagram.com/p/By6Za1pHb5c/?igshid=16ba1qsvnpm91

[elleshushan]

It’s Flag Day🇺🇸Celebrate🇺🇸 Two patriotic American girls proudly parading flag bows. 🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸 Celebrate with them at Antiques in Manchester, August 7 & 8. @antiquesinmanchester 🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸 #AntiquesinManchester #CollectorsFair #NHAntiquesWeek #PortraitMiniature #PortraitMiniatures #MiniaturePortrait #MiniaturePortraits #HistoricArt #elleshushan #AmericanArt #AmericanFlag #AmericanPortraitMiniature #AmericanChildren #JewelryWithAFace #WearableArt #PatrioticArt #FlagDay🇺🇸 (at Antiques in Manchester The Collectors Fair) https://www.instagram.com/p/BysyfRjnrvW/?igshid=5nijr90m6kj

[elleshushan]

“It would be difficult to imagine less brain combined with more beauty” - The Count de Gramont. But ‘Le Belle Stuart’ managed to do very well for herself. A distant relative of the Royal Stuarts, Frances Teresa Stuart’s impoverished parents were in exile with Queen Henrietta Maria in France when Frances was born. After the Restoration, Frances arrived in the English court, instantly grabbing center stage. Samuel Pepys noted in his diary “...the greatest beauty I ever saw in my life.” The King was so smitten that he considered divorcing the Queen when Frances refused to become merely his mistress. Instead she eloped with another Stuart - Charles Stuart, 3rd Duke of Richmond and 6th Duke of Lennox. The very wealthy and dissipated duke didn’t last long, drowning after only 4 years of marriage. Frances became the Duchess of Lennox in her own right, returning to Court a very rich and even more desirable catch - but she never married again. In 1702 “Le Belle Stuart,” whose face became the image of Britannia on Britain’s coinage, commissioned a life-size wax model of herself, dressed in coronation robes. She placed it in the Richmond vault in Westminster Abbey where, in 1703, she was buried with her husband. Next to her effigy is her pet parrot, now believed to be the oldest stuffed bird in existence. ************************************** By Samuel Cooper, circa 1665, in the Collection of Her Majesty the Queen @royalcollectiontrust. ************************************** #RoyalCollectionTrust #RoyalCollection #PortraitMiniature #PortraitMiniatures #MiniaturePortrait #HistoricArt #MiniaturePortraits #elleshushan #LeBelleStuart #17thcentury #FrancesTeresaStuart #CharlesII https://www.instagram.com/p/ByoCJEenh3n/?igshid=uopkpsann3fr

[elleshushan]

How’s this for a mouthful of titles - Charles Stuart, 3rd Duke of Richmond, 6th Duke of Lennox, Baron Stuart of Newbury, Earl of Litchfield, 12th Seigneur D’Aubigny, Lord Lieutenant and Vice-Admiral of Kent, Hereditary Great Chamberlain of Scotland, Hereditary Great Admiral of Scotland, Lord Lieutenant of Dorset, Gentleman of the Bedchamber and Knight of the Order of the Garter. None of these titles required any sort of effort so Stuart, cousin to Charles II, had plenty of time to apply himself to a life of licentiousness. He ran through two wives before eloping with the object of the King’s unrequited lust - the scrumptious Frances Teresa Stuart, ‘Le Belle Stuart’ (so many Stuarts in this story). Instantly banished from Court for their sins, the Duke accepted a real job - envoy to the Danish Court. There, at the age of 33, the degenerate Charles Stuart drowned at Elsinore. Le Belle Stuart, instantly filthy rich, retained for herself the title of Duchess of Lennox. After entombing her Duke in Westminster Abbey, she became a very merry widow. ************************************* Samuel Cooper (1609-1672) Charles Stuart, 3rd Duke of Richmond and 6th Duke of Lennox, circa 1665, Yale Center for British Art, Paul Mellon Collection. @yalebritishart ************************************** #YaleCenterForBritishArt #PortraitMiniature #PortraitMiniatures #MiniaturePortrait #MiniaturePortraits #HistoricArt #elleshushan #17thCentury #BritishMiniature #BritishPortrait #BritishPortraitMiniature #SamuelCooper #LeBelleStuart #FrancesTeresaStuart (at Yale Center for British Art) https://www.instagram.com/p/ByQyhgfnKW_/?igshid=ko2qgjd39y78

[elleshushan]

The tragic Ferdinand of Orleans, Duc de Chartres, Prince Royal of France at the age of 5 - with nothing but glittering expectations ahead. The eldest son of King Louis-Philippe, Ferdinand became an officer of exceptional talent and great promise, carrying the hopes of his country. But the Prince was lost in a fateful accident. His inconsolable parents built a memorial chapel on the spot where he died. The chapel still stands today - a testament to shattered promise. *************************************** By royal miniaturist Jean-Baptiste-Jacques Augustin, 1815. The frame retains royal inventory numbers on the reverse with the initials ‘MA’ for Marie-Amelie, the Prince’s mother. *************************************** #FromtheArchives #PortraitMiniature #MiniaturePortrait #PortraitMiniatures #MiniaturePortraits #HistoricArt #RoyalPortrait #elleshushan #Augustin #FrenchRoyalFamily #RoyalChildren #FerdinandofOrleans #DucdeChartres #Louis-Philippe #Marie-Amelie https://www.instagram.com/p/ByD676rnqur/?igshid=1xvmff2b0zsuj

[elleshushan]

Sometimes it just happens - artists, virtually untrained - produce works which shimmer with beauty. Laura Coombs Hills was one. She was already renowned for her landscapes and flower paintings, when, on a trip to England in 1890, Hills discovered portrait miniatures. Without an awareness of their history or technique, she invented her own - working in sweeping colors on an unusually large format. Her remarkable portraits resembled nothing that had been seen before, their artistry gaining her instant fame. Hills was the first miniaturist to be admitted to the Society of American Artists, and, in 1898, she was a founder of the American Society of Miniature Painters. The year before her death in 1952, Hills, a lifelong resident of Boston and Newburyport, gifted the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston 15 miniatures - an invaluable testament to her glistening talent. ************************************* Laura Coombs Hills “The Red Flower” (Dorothy Bass Whitney) 1904, @mfaboston ************************************* #MuseumofFineArtsBoston #LauraCoombsHills #BostonPortrait #PortraitMiniature #PortraitMiniatures #MiniaturePortrait #MiniaturePortraits #elleshushan #AmericanPortraitMiniature #AmericanArt #HistoricArt @european.portrait.miniatures - with thanks! (at Museum of Fine Arts, Boston) https://www.instagram.com/p/Bxx5HXMnzPk/?igshid=1jq87e427mml5

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Born with a most impressive artistic pedigree, miniaturist Anna Claypoole Peale was the daughter of artist James Peale, the neice of artist Charles Willson Peale and the granddaughter of Philadelphia’s first portrait painter, James Claypoole. Her career was settled at birth. Trained by both her father and her uncle, Anna was only 20 when she first exhibited at the Pennsylvania Academy, where, in 1824, she and her artist sister, Sarah Miriam were elected the first female Academicians. Charles Willson Peale, notoriously stingy with praise for his own artist children, reveled in Anna’s success, taking her with him to Washington in 1818, where he arranged for her to paint President James Monroe and General Andrew Jackson. Finally marrying at the age of 38 to Reverend William Staughton, Anna celebrated by changing both her signature to “Anna C. Staughton” and her style. Gone were the sprightly young women without shoulders, their bright dresses hanging from long necks. Her work instantly turned academic; she would retain her new style for the rest of her life. Sadly Reverend Staughton died three months after their wedding. But Anna kept going, sharing studios in both Philadelphia and Baltimore with her sister. In 1841, at the age of 50, she married again, giving up her career to be the wife of General William Duncan. But 23 years later when Duncan passed away, Anna again picked up her brush. She continued to paint until her death in 1878 at the age of 87. https://www.instagram.com/p/Bxf4q-_HPlX/?igshid=1a5rfxz0d8vnd

[elleshushan]

The youngest and most alluring of the 5 daughters of the 4th Duke of Beaufort, Mary Isabella was an artist’s magnet even as a child; painted by both Sir Joshua Reynolds and Catherine Read by the time she was 5. Of course there was a glittering marriage - to Charles Manners, 4th Duke of Rutland, Lord Lieutenant of Ireland. Described as “the most beautiful woman in the kingdom of high rank” (in other words, the low-born “actresses” favored by her husband may have been equally attractive, but not accepted in polite society), Reynolds would paint an additional 3 portraits of Mary Isabella over the next 20 years. Despite her husband’s preference for actresses and his open attachment to the opera singer Mrs. Billington, the couple would have 5 children before the “excessive consumption of claret” downed the Duke in 1787 at the age of 33. The Duchess, who never remarried, settled into a long life as a dignified dowager. ************************************* Lady Mary Isabella Somerset, Duchess of Rutland, attributed to Catherine Read, circa 1760. ************************************** #PortraitMiniature #PortraitMiniatures #MiniaturePortrait #MiniaturePortraits #DuchessofRutland #elleshushan #HistoricArt #BritishPortrait #18thcentury #BritishPortraitMiniature #CatherineRead #SirJoshuaReynolds #JoshuaReynolds #WearableArt #JewelryWithaFace #JewelleryWithaFace #MaryIsabellaSomerset https://www.instagram.com/p/BxN6UraHtBZ/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=18k8ztxltxi5r

[elleshushan]

Swagger. It was missing from American miniatures until Henry Inman. In 1814 at the tender age of 13, Inman began an eventful 7 year apprenticeship with the eccentic and ridiculously talented John Wesley Jarvis. Inman learned quickly; he and Jarvis sometimes finished 6 portraits a week, with Jarvis painting the faces and Inman executing the rest. But Jarvis also taught Inman what not to do. After 7 years of dragging his inebriated master out of gutters, the sober Inman took a wife, then set up his own studio in New York City - the first American artist to treat his talent as a business. A founder member of the National Academy of Design, Inman reigned as New York’s leading portraitist for almost 20 years. President Martin Van Buren, John James Audubon and Fanny Kemble all sat to him. In 1844, two years before his untimely death, with commissions to paint William Wordsworth and Thomas Macaulay, Inman left for England, producing some of his strongest work while there. ******************************** By Henry Inman, circa 1830. ******************************** #PortraitMiniature #PortraitMiniatures #MiniaturePortrait #MiniaturePortraits #AmericanPortrait #elleshushan #HistoricArt #AmericanPortraitMiniature #HenryInman #Swagger #19thcentury https://www.instagram.com/p/Bw8PjIsnkJC/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=hq4hn4pwoyb1