Double Vision: Portrait Miniatures and Embedded
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DOUBLE VISION: PORTRAIT MINIATURES AND EMBEDDED LIKENESS IN EARLY AMERICA by Katie E. McKinney A thesis submitted to the Faculty of the University of Delaware in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Masters in Arts in American Material Culture Spring 2015 © 2015 Katie McKinney All Rights Reserved ProQuest Number: 1596877 All rights reserved INFORMATION TO ALL USERS The quality of this reproduction is dependent upon the quality of the copy submitted. In the unlikely event that the author did not send a complete manuscript and there are missing pages, these will be noted. Also, if material had to be removed, a note will indicate the deletion. ProQuest 1596877 Published by ProQuest LLC (2015). Copyright of the Dissertation is held by the Author. All rights reserved. This work is protected against unauthorized copying under Title 17, United States Code Microform Edition © ProQuest LLC. ProQuest LLC. 789 East Eisenhower Parkway P.O. Box 1346 Ann Arbor, MI 48106 - 1346 DOUBLE VISION: PORTRAIT MINIATURES AND EMBEDDED LIKENESS IN EARLY AMERICA by Katie E. McKinney Approved: __________________________________________________________ Catharine Dann Roeber, Ph.D. Professor in charge of thesis on behalf of the Advisory Committee Approved: __________________________________________________________ J. Ritchie Garrison, Ph.D. Director of the Winterthur Program in American Material Culture Approved: __________________________________________________________ George H. Watson, Ph.D. Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences Approved: __________________________________________________________ James G. Richards, Ph.D. Vice Provost for Graduate and Professional Education ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I would like to thank my fearless thesis advisor, Catharine Dann Roeber for her unwavering encouragement, hard work, and guidance throughout this process. I am also extremely grateful to Wendy Bellion for her support and for helping me develop this topic. I would also like to thank Mel Buchanan for allowing me access to the New Orleans Museum of Art’s portrait miniature collection. Laura Pass Barry, Margaret Pritchard, and Kate Teiken were so kind in their responses to emails and for granting such wonderful access to the collections at Colonial Williamsburg. I am very grateful to Elle Shushan for her time and wisdom. Further, I would like to thank all of the scholars and curators at various institutions that assisted me with my research including Anna Marly, Robin Jaffee Frank, Alyce Englund, Ethan Lasser, Erik Gronning, Anne Lanning, Daniel Ackermann, and Grahame Long. I owe an extreme debt of gratitude to the staff of the Winterthur Library, especially Emily Guthrie and Lauri Perkins. I would like to thank the Winterthur staff and professors in the Winterthur Program, especially Linda Eaton, Rosemary Krill, Ritchie Garrison, and Jeanne Solenski. Many thanks to my classmates in WPAMC ’15 — it has been a pleasure and an honor. Additionally, I would like to express my utmost thanks to: Amy Torbert, Martin Brükner, Ann Smart Martin, WPAMC ‘13, WPAMC ‘14, WPAMC ‘16, Travis Olson, Tiernan Alexander, and David Blanchfield. iii I am indebted to Joseph Boselovic for being both my full-time support team and reader. Most of all, I would like to thank my parents, Jeff and Adrianne McKinney, and my brother David for their encouragement and love. Finally, thank you to my family and friends for their patience and support throughout this process. iv TABLE OF CONTENTS LIST OF FIGURES ....................................................................................................... vi ABSTRACT .................................................................................................................. ix Chapter 1 INTRODUCTION .............................................................................................. 1 2 THE MINUTE VIEW: PORTRAIT OF AN AMERICAN MINITURIST ..... 24 3 “YES, IT IS YOU MY DEAR”: PORTRAIT MINIATURES WITHIN LARGE-SCALE PORTRAITURE .................................................................. 63 4 THE LANGUAGE OF THE MINIATURE: PORTRAIT MINIATURES IN PRINT CULTURE ......................................................................................... 101 5 CONCLUSION .............................................................................................. 130 REFERENCES ........................................................................................................... 141 Appendix IMAGE PERMISSIONS…………. ........................................................................... 154 v LIST OF FIGURES Figure 1.1 Trade Card of Raphaelle Peale, c. 1801, Winterthur Library: Joseph Downs Collection of Manuscripts and Printed Ephemera……………………………………………………………..12 Figure 2.1 James Peale Painting a Miniature, c.1795, Charles Willson Peale, Mead Art Museum, Amherst College/Bridgeman Images…………………………...........................................................25 Figure 2.2 Detail, Frontispiece, Volume I, from in John Barrow, Dictionarium Polygraphicum, 1758; The Winterthur Library: Printed Book and Periodical Collection…………………………………………….........40 Figure 2.3 Detail, Figure 1, Plate VII, Volume II in John Barrow, Dictionarium Polygraphicum, 1758; The Winterthur Library: Printed Book and Periodical Collection.............................................................................43 Figure 2.4 Portrait of a Gentleman, Abraham Woodside, John Woodside (Brother of Artist), Attributed to John Archibald Woodside, Sr, c. 1810, Pennsylvania Museum of Art…………………………………………49 Figure 2.5 Detail, Portrait of a Gentleman, Abraham Woodside, John Woodside (Brother of Artist), c. 1810, attributed to John Archibald Woodside, Sr, Pennsylvania Museum of Art…………………………………………51 Figure 2.6 Portrait of an Unknown Woman, c. 1825, Courtesy, American Antiquarian Society…………………………………………………...53 Figure 2.7 James Peale, 1822 (oil on canvas), Peale, Charles Willson Peale, Detroit Institute of Arts, USA / Bridgeman Images…………..............60 Figure 3.1 Hannah Ackley Bush, 1791, Attributed to John Mackay or M’Kay American Antiquarian Society……………………………………......74 Figure 3.2 John Bush, 1791, Attributed to John Mackay or M’Kay, American Antiquarian Society…………………………………………………...75 vi Figure 3.3 Detail Hannah Ackley Bush, 1791, from Attributed to John Mackay or M’Kay, American Antiquarian Society………………………………77 Figure 3.4 Charity Platt Bush, 1785/86, Matthew Pratt, American Antiquarian Society………………………………………………………………...79 Figure 3.5 Portrait of Robert Lea, 1797, Adolf Ulrich Wertmüller, The Corcoran Gallery of Art…………………………………………………………84 Figure 3.6 Sara Shippen Lea (Mrs. Thomas Lea), c. 1798, Gilbert Stuart, The Corcoran Gallery of Art……………………........................................86 Figure 3.7 Detail Sara Shippen Lea (Mrs. Thomas Lea)…………………………88 Figure 3.8 Smith Family Portrait, ca. 1807, Attributed to Captain James Smith, The Colonial Williamsburg Foundation……………………………...91 Figure 4.1 Autumn, 1790-1810, Printed and sold by B. Plen, Winterthur Museum, Bequest Henry Francis du Pont……………………………………...110 Figure 4.2 Seeing, 1736-1775, After R. Pyle, engraved by R. Houseton, printed for Carington Bowles, The British Museum…………………………….111 Figure 4.3 The Miniature, 1842, After W. Ferring, engraved by A. L. Dick; engraving, Accessible Archives, Godey’s Ladys Book, 18420700.....113 Figure 4.4 The Seven Deadly Sins: Lust, 1639-1650, After Abraham Bosse, Made by John Goddard, Published by Thomas Jenner, The British Museum……………………………………………………………...117 Figure 4.5 Regrets, c. 1827-1835, After Claude-Marie Debufe, American Antiquarian Society………………………………………………….119 Figure 4.6 Memories, After Claude-Marie Debufe, Drawn on Stone by M.E.D. Brown, American Antiquarian Society……………………………...121 Figure 4.7 Detail, Memories…………………………………………………….122 Figure 5.1 The Dying Soldier, 1870, After H.P Simmons, Engraved by A. Turell , Printed by Thomas Kelley Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division……………………………………………………………...137 vii Figure 5.2 Three-Quarter Length Portrait, 1847, Jane Anthony Davis, inscribed Sotheby’s Auctions………………………………………………….139 Figure 5.3 Daguerreotype after Jane Anthony Davis (1821-1855) The Important Americana Sale, January 2015. Lot 864. Courtesy of Sotheby’s Auctions……………………………………………………………..140 viii ABSTRACT This thesis examines the important social, cultural, and symbolic roles that portrait miniatures performed in the Early Republic. These small, mobile art objects accomplished a variety of functions both as physical objects and symbolic touchpoints when they became “embedded” or referenced visually and textually in other artistic works. In order to develop a better understanding of the multifaceted nature of portrait miniatures, this thesis explores the role and placement of these objects within large- scale oil portraits, miniatures, prints, and literature to investigate why American sitters, patrons, and artists wished to display and integrate smaller portraits into larger works. This work also analyzes the circulation of portrait miniatures as objects that served to connect individuals physically, emotionally, and otherwise in the early republic. In this thesis I propose the “minute view”, one that was at once intensely concentrated but was representative of social, familial, and national networks on a large scale. The inclusion of these objects in the visual, material, and literary worlds of the post-revolutionary period, helps to place these objects within the framework of the language of portrait miniatures in an American context.