Unknown, Portrait of a Woman, ca. 1790–95

Chicago:

Aimee Marcereau DeGalan, “Unknown, Portrait of a Woman, ca. 1790–95,” catalogue entry in Aimee Marcereau DeGalan, Blythe Sobol, and Maggie Keenan, The Starr Collection of Portrait Miniatures, 1500–1850: The Collections of the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, vol. 3, ed. Aimee Marcereau DeGalan (Kansas City, MO: Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, 2024), https://doi.org/10.37764/8322.5.1665.

MLA:

Marcereau DeGalan, Aimee. “Unknown, Portrait of a Woman, ca. 1790–95,” catalogue entry. Aimee Marcereau DeGalan, Blythe Sobol, and Maggie Keenan. The Starr Collection of Portrait Miniatures, 1500–1850: The Collections of the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, edited by Aimee Marcereau DeGalan, vol. 3, Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, 2024. doi: 10.37764/8322.5.1665.

This brown-haired beauty with striking blue eyes was formerly thought to be one of only a handful of examples by British artist Joseph Saunders I, who flourished in London from 1772 to 1808. Saunders frequently signed his miniatures or included his initials, yet this miniature remains unsigned. Moreover, the sitter does not bear the artist’s stylistic hallmarks of oversized, wide-set eyes, a sharp nose, and a small mouth. Nor does she possess the heavy eyebrows or buoyant curls of his other sitters. At present, no single artist comes forward as a viable candidate.¹

We can surmise slightly more about the sitter through the gilt copper alloy case, which contains an unusual red glass surround on the recto of the miniature, with a hair reserve, or compartment set within the back of the case to showcase a section of braided hair. The case also includes the letter “A” in seed pearls. The initial may relate to the sitter’s identity, and the hairwork may provide an additional clue about the miniature’s function. In late eighteenth-century Britain, hairwork—like miniatures—functioned as mementoes to maintain a bond between the sitter and the beholder, whether separated by distance or death.² Thus, this miniature may have functioned as either a love token or as mourning jewelry.

The sitter’s low-cut décolleté neckline is edged in lace and pearls, which the artist also added to the sitter’s sleeve. However, the lead white pigment the artist used to highlight the pearls has oxidized and turned black, leaving the dress looking very different from what the artist, whoever they may be, originally intended.

Notes

1. Stephen Lloyd, curator of the Derby Collection, Knowsley Hall, England, agrees that the miniature does not look like Saunders. Lloyd suggested, “It is not by any of the big-name English portrait miniaturists from that period, but by a second level miniaturist.” Lloyd to Aimee Marcereau DeGalan, October 5, 2022, NAMA curatorial files.

2. Cynthia Amnéus, “The Art of Ornamental Hairwork,” in Julie Aronson and Marjorie Wieseman, Perfect Likeness: European and American Portrait Miniatures from the Cincinnati Art Museum (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2006), 66.

Mr. John W. (1905–2000) and Mrs. Martha Jane (1906–2011) Starr, Kansas City, MO, by 1958;

Their gift to The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, MO, 1958.

The Starr Foundation Collection of Miniatures, The Royal Ontario Museum, Toronto, December 8, 1972–January 14, 1973, no cat., no. 158, as by Joseph Saunders, Unknown Lady.

Ross E. Taggart, The Starr Collection of Miniatures in the William Rockhill Nelson Gallery (Kansas City, MO: Nelson Gallery-Atkins Museum, 1971), no. 158, p. 54, (repro.), as attributed to Joseph Saunders, Unknown Lady.