Henry Spicer, Portrait of a Woman, 1767

Chicago:

Aimee Marcereau DeGalan, “Henry Spicer, Portrait of a Woman, 1767,” 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/10.37764/8322.5.1652.

MLA:

Marcereau DeGalan, Aimee. “Henry Spicer, Portrait of a Woman, 1767,” 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: 10.37764/8322.5.1652.

See the artist’s biography in volume 4.

This portrait miniature, dated 1767, previously attributed to an unknown maker, has emerged on closer inspection as a rare example of a watercolor on ivory by Henry Spicer. While Spicer is primarily recognized as an enamellist, he occasionally ventured into watercolor on ivory, as well as pastel.¹ Spicer was known for his portraits of theatrical figures and actors,² and his oeuvre also includes portraits of notable members of society, including those in the royal court.³ The quiet countenance of the woman in this portrait, coupled with her ermine-lined robe, suggests she was likely a peeress.

Ermine-trimmed cloaks were a favorite feature in 1760s portraits of women by Sir Joshua Reynolds (1723–1792), whom Spicer was known to copy.⁴ Some scholars have suggested that the cloaks seen in several Reynolds portraits of the time were studio props.⁵ Here, the sitter wears a royal blue, ermine-trimmed cloak over a white wrap dress and chemise with white frill collar. Spicer’s sense of color and dense application of pigment aligns with the brilliant color of enamels, which he would have known intimately from his practice in that medium. He also employs parallel brushwork as a printmaker would to create shadow and depth, particularly in passages in the blue mantle; printmaking was something else he dabbled in.⁶

The years spanning 1760 to 1790 are regarded as a golden age of portraiture, with artists like Reynolds producing some of their most iconic works. During this period, artists sought to innovate and redefine the genre, adapting to the shift that came with the opening of the first public exhibition spaces in the 1760s. Portraits evolved from understated depictions, such as the one captured in this miniature, to more dynamic representations, seen later in the full flowering of artists like Richard Cosway (1742–1821).

Notes

1. For another example of a work by Henry Spicer in watercolor on ivory, see Henry Spicer, Portrait of a Captain of the Grenadier Guards, 1770–79, watercolor on ivory, 1 1/2 x 1 3/16 in (4 x 3 cm), Victoria and Albert Museum, London, https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O82130/portrait-of-a-captain-of-portrait-miniature-spicer-henry. For more on Spicer’s work in pastel, see Neil Jeffares, “Henry Spicer,” Dictionary of Pastellists before 1800, last updated January 14, 2023, https://web.archive.org/web/20240517164619/http://www.pastellists.com/Articles/SPICER.pdf.

2. For an example of prints after Spicer’s portrait of a theatrical sitter, see After Henry Spicer, engraved by Benjamin Smith, William Smith, Actor, 1789, engraving on paper, 4 x 3 in. (10.2 x 7.6 cm), Folger Shakespeare Library, https://digitalcollections.folger.edu/img30936.

3. Spicer produced miniatures of such distinguished sitters as George IV, the first Marquess of Hastings, the Duke of Northumberland, the Earl of Moira, Sir Joshua Reynolds, and Edmund Burke, among others. See Emma Rutherford, “Henry Spicer,” Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, September 23, 2004, https://doi.org/10.1093/ref:odnb/26148.

4. See By or After Henry Spicer, after Joshua Reynolds, Barbara, Countess of Coventry, 1764/65, mezzotint on paper, 14 x 9 7/8 in (35.5 x 25.2 cm), National Portrait Gallery, London, https://www.npg.org.uk/collections/search/portrait/mw148646/Barbara-ne-St-John-Countess-of-Coventry. For Reynolds’s original painting, see Joshua Reynolds, Hon. Barbara, St. John, Countess of Coventry, 1764, oil on canvas, 50 x 40 in. (127 x 101.6 cm), National Trust, Faringdon Collection, Buscot Park, Faringdon, Oxfordshire, https://buscot-park.com/gallery/10. Angelica Kauffman produced a portrait of the Countess of Coventry as well: Angelica Kauffmann (British, born in Switzerland, 1741–1807), Barbara St. John Bletsoe, Countess of Coventry, n.d., oil on canvas, 51 1/2 x 47 in. (130.8 x 119.3 cm), Princeton University Art Museum, https://artmuseum.princeton.edu/collections/objects/36827. The sitter in Kauffman’s portrait bears some resemblance to the Nelson-Atkins’ sitter, as does the one in Reynolds’s picture; however, Spicer’s mezzotint is a departure from these depictions, thus making any attribution too speculative without further information.

5. See Katharine Baetjer, British Paintings in The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1575–1875 (New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2009), 62–63, 96, no. 27.

6. The British Library lists Spicer as an engraver; see “Henry Spicer,” British Museum collection database, accessed May 24, 2024, https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/term/BIOG78910. The National Portrait Gallery houses a print (after Sir Joshua Reynolds) of Barbara (née St. John), Countess of Coventry, 1764–65, mezzotint, 14 x 9 7/8 in. (35.5 x 25.2 cm), National Portrait Gallery, London, D34192, https://www.npg.org.uk/collections/search/portrait/mw148646/Barbara-ne-St-John-Countess-of-Coventry, that they speculate is by or after Spicer. The print indicates that “Spicer fecit” (or “made it”) in the lower right of the print.

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. 201, as 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. 201, p. 68, (repro.), as Unknown Lady.