1 THE NEW-YORK HISTORICAL SOCIETY I QUARTERLY BULLETIN VOL. XX OCTOBER, 1936 No. 4 HUDSON RIVER STEAMBOAT SARATOGA Built in 1877 for the Citizens Night Line, of Troy, N Y. Painted by James Bard, New York, 1881 (Purchased by the Society, 1936) PUBLISHED BY THE SOCIETY AND ISSUED TO MEMBERS NEW YORK: 170 CENTRAL PARK WEST THE NEW-YORK HISTORICAL SOCIETY, 170 CENTRAL PARK WEST (Erected by the Society 1908) Wings to be erected on the 76th and 77th Street corners OFFICERS OF THE SOCIETY Until January 4, 1938 PRESIDENT FOREIGN CORRESPONDING SECRETARY JOHN ABEEL WEEKES ARCHER MILTON HUNTINGTON FIRST VICE-PRESIDENT DOMESTIC CORRESPONDING SECRETARY R. HORACE GALLATIN ERSKINE HEWITT SECOND VICE-PRESIDENT RECORDING SECRETARY ROBERT E. DOWLING DEWITT M. LOCKMAN THIRD VICE-PRESIDENT TREASURER B. W. B. BROWN GEORGE A. ZABRISKIE FOURTH VICE-PRESIDENT LIBRARIAN AUGUSTUS C. HONE ALEXANDER J. WALL The New York Historical Society is not responsible for statements in signed articles. THE RAMAGE MINIATURES OF GEORGE WASHINGTON By JOHN HILL MORGAN William Dunlap, to whose book we look as the foundation for our knowledge concerning our early artists, has little to say regard­ ing John Ramage. In fact, he dismisses this interesting painter with less than a page of text, and did not mention, if he knew, that Ramage had painted at least one portrait of President Washington from life. Yet, Dunlap's page I contained most of our knowledge concerning Ramage until the discovery, a few years ago, of a number of letters, documents and other data concerning Ramage, including his work desk, still in the possession of a descendant. These new facts concerning him were published by The New York Historical Society in 1930.2 Henry T. Tuckerman, who was at least the most voluminous writer on our early artists after Dunlap (whom he industriously copied), was the first author, so far as has been found, who men­ tions that Washington had noted in his diary a sitting given to Ramage. Under the date of October 3, 1789, while living in New York, the President's diary records: "Sat for Mr. Ramma^e near two hours to-day, who was drawing a miniature Picture of me for Mrs. Washington." While Tuckerman mentions this,3 so little first hand informa­ tion did he have concerning Ramage that he continued Washing­ ton's misspelling of the artist's name, calling him "Rammage." Elizabeth Bryant Johnston, in her book on the Washington portraits, mentions the painting of a miniature by Ramage, but 1 A History of the Rise and Progress of the Arts of Design in the United States, by William Dunlap (New York, 1834), I, 326-27. 2 John Hill Morgan, A Sketch of the Life of John Ramage, Miniature Painter (The New York Historical Society, 1930). Reprinted, with additions, from The New York Historical Society Quarterly Bulletin, for January and April, 1930. 3 Henry T. Tuckerman, The Character and Portraits of Washington (New York, 1859), 73-74- 95 96 THE NEW-YORK HISTORICAL SOCIETY evidently it was unlocated as she did not describe or publish a reproduction thereof. She says that: "John Ramage painted miniatures of Gen. and Mrs. Washington, which the latter highly approved, wearing that of her husband in a brooch, and in after- years (so family tradition testifies) giving it to one of her granddaughters."4 k 1 mWmrnwHBPr mmmW FIGURE i. GEORGE WASHINGTON Painted by John Ramage in New York City, October, 1789, for Mrs. Washington Courtesy of Mrs. Andrew Van Pelt and the Frick Art Reference Library And incorrectly, as the event proved, suggested an alternative that it might be the miniature given by Mrs. Washington to Colonel Tobias Lear. The miniature given Colonel Lear, however, was a copy by Robert Field from a Stuart portrait of Washington of 4 Elizabeth Bryant Johnston, Original Portraits of Washington (Boston, 1882), 114. QUARTERLYBULLETIN 97 the "Vaughan" Type, and now forms part of the Munn Collection at the Metropolitan Museum.5 Apparently a Ramage miniature of Washington was not located, described or reproduced until the exhibition held in 1889 to commemorate the centennial of the first inauguration of President Washington in New York. At that time one of the Washington miniatures by Ramage was owned by Mrs. Moses S. Beach of Peekskill, N. Y., and was exhibited. The late Charles Henry Hart described the miniature (see Figure 2) and it was reproduced in the catalogue of that exhibition.6 In The Century Magazine, of February, 1894, Mr. H. S. Stabler published an article on "The Ramage Miniature" (part I of an article on "Two Unpublished Portraits of Washington"), and reproduced a Ramage miniature of Washington (see Figure 1) differing considerably from that shown in Figures 2 and 3, and from its pedigree it seems clear that it was the miniature which the artist had painted for Mrs. Washington, and the sitting for which was referred to in the President's diary. Some time after the turn of the century, the late Charles A. Munn purchased a miniature (Figure 3) almost identical with the likeness shown in Figure 2, and upon his death in 1924, it was bequeathed by him, with a large collection of Americana, to the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. Mr. Munn's minia­ ture (Figure 3) appeared to be so like that reproduced in the catalogue of the New York exhibition of 1889 (Figure 2), that it was believed by many that Mr. Munn had purchased the miniature formerly belonging to Mrs. Moses S. Beach; but as there was no information among Mr. Munn's papers as to where or when or from whom he had purchased this miniature, the question as to the existence of a third Washington miniature by Ramage was kept open, and the writer of this article and Mr. Mantle Fielding did not identify the Munn miniature with that owned at one time by Mr. Beach, in their book on The Life Portraits of George Washington and Their Replicas, published in 1931. Within the last year, the miniature purchased by Moses S. 5 This miniature is described in Robert Field, by Harry Piers (New York, 1927), 164. 6 Clarence W. Bowen, The History of the Centennial Celebration of the Inaugura­ tion of Washington (New York, 1892), 178, 544. 98 THE NEW-YORK HISTORICAL SOCIETY Beach in Montreal in 1884, and exhibited at the Centennial of Washington's Inauguration, has come into the possession of Mr. Erskine Hewitt, and is now on exhibition at The New York Historical Society. It may be timely, therefor, to give the history FIGURE 2. GEORGE WASHINGTON By John Ramage Given by Ramage to M. des Rivieres of Montreal for kindness during his last illness Courtesy of Erskine Hewitt, Esq., and the Frick Art Reference Library and to describe the three known miniatures of Washington by John Ramage. From the meagre reference in Washington's diary all we know is that the President "sat for Mr. Rammage near two hours to-day" (October 3, 1789), and that it was being painted for Mrs. Washington. Two hours would have been far too short a QUARTERLYBULLETIN 99 time for an artist to finish even one, and as these miniatures are of two types, one full face, and the other one quarter left, it would seem that Ramage either went to the sitting with two pieces of ivory partially finished as to pose and clothing, sketching in the faces at the sitting, or he may have made two sketches of the President's face to be used as models for miniatures to be finished later. As both types depict Washington in Continental uniform, it is certain that this detail was not painted in at the sitting, as Washington, probably, had not worn this uniform since he resigned his commission to the Congress on December 23, 1783. There is no way of telling at this date what was done at the sitting, but it would seem probable, on the whole, that the two pieces of ivory had been partially painted, Washington's face sketched, in and later finished. "*_•'.'.• Mr! H. S. Stabler, in his article in The Century Magazine, before referred to, says that the setting of his miniature (Figure 1) is in the shape of a locket; and in the back of the case is General Washington's hair, and upon the back: "rests a' facsimile of his monogram, now almost broken. The original seal from which this monogram was copied was lost on Braddock's field, and was there found by Daniel Boone Logan in 1842."7 If Washington's seal was lost in 1747 and not recovered until 1842, how could it have been used as the model for a monogram in a miniature painted in 1789, unless an impression thereof was used? It was the custom at the time to place the cypher monogram of the sitter in the back of the miniature and this cypher would, no doubt, have been cut by Ramage himself. Mr. Stabler also states that: "Glued to the ivory, for the purpose of stiffening it, is an old-fashioned playing- card, perhaps the seven or nine of hearts. Ramage's grandson says that the artist's desk contains similar playing-cards." A reproduction of Ramage's work desk, with his tools for making miniature cases, etc., still in place, appears on page 17 of the author's book on Ramage mentioned in footnote 2. 7 As authority for the statement concerning the copying of the lost seal, Mr. Stabler cites "George Washington and Mount Vernon," published by the Long Island Historical Society, 1889.