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