Citation
Chicago:
Maggie Keenan, “Charles Forrest, Portrait of Juliana Wallace (née Drake), 1776,” 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: Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, 2024), https://doi.org/10.37764/8322.5.1404.
MLA:
Keenan, Maggie. “Charles Forrest, Portrait of Juliana Wallace (née Drake), 1776,” 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: 10.37764/8322.5.1404.
Artist's Biography
See the artist’s biography in volume 4.
Catalogue Entry
Little is known about Charles Forrest, although his style is instantly recognizable through his use of a muted color palette; pointed, almond-shaped eyes; and perfectly striated hair. His soft palette is indicative of his work as a pastellist, and most of his identified pastel: A type of drawing stick made from finely ground pigments or other colorants (dyes), fillers (often ground chalk), and a small amount of a polysaccharide binder (gum arabic or gum tragacanth). While many artists made their own pastels, during the nineteenth century, pastels were sold as flat sticks, pointed sticks encased in tightly wound paper wrappers, or as wood-encased pencils. Pastels can be applied dry, dampened, or wet, and they can be manipulated with a variety of tools, including paper stumps, chamois cloth, brushes, or fingers. Pastel can also be ground and applied as a powder or mixed with water to form a paste. Pastel is a friable media, meaning that it is powdery or crumbles easily. To overcome this difficulty, artists have used a variety of fixatives to prevent image loss. are in the collection of the National Gallery of Ireland.1See search results for “Charles Forrest,” collections database, National Gallery of Ireland, Dublin, NGI.7351–7355, http://onlinecollection.nationalgallery.ie/people/900/charles-forrest/objects. The presence of the “C. Forrest” signature above this sitter’s left shoulder confirms this work in his otherwise limited oeuvre.2See Portrait Miniature of a Lady, 1776, watercolor on ivory, 1 3/4 in. (4.2 cm) high, sold at Chiswick Auctions, London, “Fine Portrait Miniatures including The Comerford Collection,” March 25, 2020, lot 20, https://www.chiswickauctions.co.uk/auction/lot/lot-20—charles-forrest-irish-fl-1765-1787-portrait/?lot=57324; Portrait of a Lady, 1776, watercolor on ivory, 1 13/16 x 1 1/2 in. (4.6 x 3.9 cm), https://www.gorrygallery.ie/artworks/p/charles-forrest-1 and Portrait of a Gentleman, watercolor on ivory, 1 1/2 x 1 1/4 in. (3.7 x 3.2 cm), formerly in the inventory of Gorry Gallery, Dublin; and Portrait Miniature of a Gentleman, 1777, watercolor on ivory, 1 1/4 x 1 3/16 in. (3.2 x 3 cm), sold at Toovey’s, West Sussex, “Objects of Virtu,” November 30, 2023, lot 2373, https://www.tooveys.com/lots/558020/charles-forrest-a-late-18th-century-oval-half-length-portrait. The sitter has been identified as Juliana Wallace (née Drake) since the portrait appeared in a 1951 sale.3Sotheby’s, London, Catalogue of Gold Snuff Boxes, Watches, Musical Boxes, Objects of Vertu, and Fine Portrait Miniatures, June 21, 1951, lot 88.
The only individual who aligns with this namesake is a Juliana Drake (d. 1809), who married Cornelius Low Wallace (1768–1815) in Ireland in 1790.4London Church of England Parish Registers, ref. DRO/140/A/04/001, London Metropolitan Archives; “Juliana Drake” marriage license microfilm, Ireland, Indexes to Wills, Probate Administration, Marriage Bonds, and Licenses, 1591–1866, National Archives, Dublin, digitized on Ancestrylibrary.com. But if her year of birth is around the time of Cornelius’s, then she would have been far too young to sit for this portrait. It should be noted that a 1922 fire in Dublin’s Public Record Office resulted in the loss of two-thirds of the Church of Ireland’s original baptismal, marriage, and burial records.5The catastrophic fire occurred two days into Ireland’s Civil War. Ronan McGreevy, “Retrieval of Irish Archive Lost in 1922 Fire ‘Astounding,’ Historian Says,” The Irish Times, December 5, 2019, https://www.irishtimes.com/culture/heritage/retrieval-of-irish-archive-lost-in-1922-fire-astounding-historian-says-1.4104963. Irish genealogical resources before 1922 are, therefore, extremely limited, allowing for the possibility of another person named Juliana Wallace (née Drake) whose life dates better support this portrait’s 1776 date.
This young woman wears her hair piled high on the top of her head. A glittery silver barrette affixed at the top attempts to restrain hair that has plans of its own, overflowing and extending beyond the borders of the ivory: The hard white substance originating from elephant, walrus, or narwhal tusks, often used as the support for portrait miniatures. support. Her hair takes a diagonal path, disappearing around her neck and then reappearing on her right shoulder in a style typical of the late 1770s. A painted brown line starts at her ear and distinguishes between the sections of her half up, half down hair.
The sitter bears delicate facial features, a fair complexion made even paler by faded watercolor: A sheer water-soluble paint prized for its luminosity, applied in a wash to light-colored surfaces such as vellum, ivory, or paper. Pigments are usually mixed with water and a binder such as gum arabic to prepare the watercolor for use. See also gum arabic. pigment: A dry coloring substance typically of mineral or organic origins until the nineteenth century, when they began to be artificially manufactured. Pigments were ground into powder form by the artist, their workshop assistants, or by the vendor they acquired the pigment from, before being mixed with a binder and liquid, such as water. Pigments vary in granulation and solubility.. The ruby jewel affixed to her shoulder is about the same size as the white enamel: Enamel miniatures originated in France before their introduction to the English court by enamellist Jean Petitot. Enamel was prized for its gloss and brilliant coloring—resembling the sheen and saturation of oil paintings—and its hardiness in contrast to the delicacy of light sensitive, water soluble miniatures painted with watercolor. Enamel miniatures were made by applying individual layers of vitreous pigment, essentially powdered glass, to a metal support, often copper but sometimes gold or silver. Each color required a separate firing in the kiln, beginning with the color that required the highest temperature; the more colors, the greater risk that the miniature would be damaged by the process. The technique was difficult to master, even by skilled practitioners, leading to its increased cost in contrast with watercolor miniatures. circles that decorate the frame. The frame’s surrounding swirls of enameled gold also align with her draped pink gown and create movement around the rest of the elaborate case, not unlike the dramatic movement of her unrestrained hair.
Notes
-
See search results for “Charles Forrest,” collections database, National Gallery of Ireland, Dublin, NGI.7351–7355, http://onlinecollection.nationalgallery.ie/people/900/charles-forrest/objects.
-
See Portrait Miniature of a Lady, 1776, watercolor on ivory, 1 3/4 in. (4.2 cm) high, sold at Chiswick Auctions, London, “Fine Portrait Miniatures including The Comerford Collection,” March 25, 2020, lot 20, https://www.chiswickauctions.co.uk/auction/lot/lot-20---charles-forrest-irish-fl-1765-1787-portrait/?lot=57324; Portrait of a Lady, 1776, watercolor on ivory, 1 13/16 x 1 1/2 in. (4.6 x 3.9 cm), https://www.gorrygallery.ie/artworks/p/charles-forrest-1, and Portrait of a Gentleman, watercolor on ivory, 1 1/2 x 1 1/4 in. (3.7 x 3.2 cm), formerly in the inventory of Gorry Gallery, Dublin; and Portrait Miniature of a Gentleman, 1777, watercolor on ivory, 1 1/4 x 1 3/16 in. (3.2 x 3 cm), sold at Toovey’s, West Sussex, “Objects of Virtu,” November 30, 2023, lot 2373, https://www.tooveys.com/lots/558020/charles-forrest-a-late-18th-century-oval-half-length-portrait.
-
Sotheby’s, London, Catalogue of Gold Snuff Boxes, Watches, Musical Boxes, Objects of Vertu, and Fine Portrait Miniatures, June 21, 1951, lot 88.
-
London Church of England Parish Registers, ref. DRO/140/A/04/001, London Metropolitan Archives; “Juliana Drake” marriage license microfilm, Ireland, Indexes to Wills, Probate Administration, Marriage Bonds, and Licenses, 1591–1866, National Archives, Dublin, digitized on Ancestrylibrary.com.
-
The catastrophic fire occurred two days into Ireland’s Civil War. Ronan McGreevy, “Retrieval of Irish Archive Lost in 1922 Fire ‘Astounding,’ Historian Says,” The Irish Times, December 5, 2019, https://www.irishtimes.com/culture/heritage/retrieval-of-irish-archive-lost-in-1922-fire-astounding-historian-says-1.4104963.
Provenance
Unknown owner, by June 21, 1951;
Purchased from the unknown owner’s sale, Fine Objects of Vertu and Portrait Miniatures, Sotheby’s, London, June 21, 1951, lot 88, as Juliana Wallace (née Drake), by Leggatt Brothers, London, probably on behalf of Mr. John W. (1905–2000) and Mrs. Martha Jane (1906–2011) Starr, Kansas City, MO, 1951–1958 [1];
Their gift to The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, MO, 1958.
Notes
[1] According to the sales catalogue, “Various Properties” sold lots 79–98. The lot description states, “Juliana Wallace (née Drake), by Charles Forrest, signed and dated 1776, head and shoulders three-quarters dexter, as a young girl, in low-cut pink dress, with an elaborate enameled frame, 1 5/8 in. Charles Forrest, who worked in Dublin, exhibited in London at the Incorporated Society of Artists in 1776. His work is rare. An example was sold in these Rooms in the Croft Lyons sale in November, 1926, also dated 1776.”
An annotated sales catalogue is located at the University of Missouri-Kansas City’s Miller Nichols Library and is likely annotated by Mr. or Mrs. Starr with a check mark over the lot number, a question mark, and “28.” The attached price list also has a slash next to entry number 88. According to the price list, Leggatt bought lot 88 for 28 pounds. Archival research has shown that Leggatt Brothers served as purchasing agents for the Starrs. See correspondence between Betty Hogg and Martha Jane Starr, May 15 and June 3, 1950, Nelson-Atkins curatorial files.
Exhibitions
The Starr Foundation Collection of Miniatures, The Royal Ontario Museum, Toronto, December 8, 1972–January 14, 1973, no cat., no. 49, as Juliana Wallace, nee Drake.
References
Catalogue of Fine Objects of Vertu and Portrait Miniatures, (London: Sotheby’s, June 21, 1951), lot 88, as Juliana Wallace (née Drake).
Ross E. Taggart, The Starr Collection of Miniatures in the William Rockhill Nelson Gallery (Kansas City, MO: Nelson Gallery-Atkins Museum, 1971), no. 49, p. 20, (repro.), as Juliana Wallace, nee Drake.
If you have additional information on this object, please tell us more.