William Grimaldi, Portrait of a Man, 1793

Chicago:

Maggie Keenan, “William Grimaldi, Portrait of a Man, 1793,” 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/10.37764/8322.5.1410.

MLA:

Keenan, Maggie. “William Grimaldi, Portrait of a Man, 1793,” 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: 10.37764/8322.5.1410.

See the artist’s biography in volume 4.

­This portrait is signed with the artist’s initials and dated 1793,¹ placing it a year after William Grimaldi’s appointment as miniature painter to the Duke and Duchess of York.² It also follows a Royal Academy exhibition that included his miniature of the late Sir Joshua Reynolds (1723–1792) and the Prince of Wales, later George IV.³ Although the Nelson-Atkins sitter remains unknown, it is evident that Grimaldi’s clientele was becoming increasingly more noteworthy at the time this portrait was painted.

Grimaldi paints the young man with a pale complexion, teased eyebrows, a dimpled chin, and a slight grin. The sitter’s face contains undertones of blue, and his flesh tones are painted with speckled mark making. This approach sets it apart from Grimaldi’s other miniature in the Nelson-Atkins collection, Portrait of a Woman, painted three years later. Grimaldi favored opaque highlights, noticeable here in the scattered white accents in his sitter’s powdered hair, coat, and cravat. He wears a slip waistcoat, with its red trim peeking out from beneath his charcoal-gray coat, while his tied cravat is rendered in a translucent manner, giving it a floating appearance.⁴

Typically, Grimaldi’s backgrounds feature either a stippled or crosshatched pattern, ranging from depictions of skies to backdrops of red curtains.⁵ Here, his background transitions from a blue sky at the top toward a sunset pink at the bottom. Grimaldi’s distinctive watercolors often feature sitters with well-defined, almond-shaped eyes and an overall cool tonal palette across their faces. Notably, when compared to his copies after larger oil paintings, his watercolor backgrounds are a soft wash of moody colors, and his brushstrokes blend more seamlessly.⁶

Notes

1. Per the monogram on the case verso, no sitters with the initials W. C. were located in his list of exhibited portraits or in the catalogue of his works: Algernon Graves, The Royal Academy of Arts: A Complete Dictionary of Contributors and Their Work (London: Henry Graves and George Bell and Sons, 1905), 326–27; Alexander Beaufort Grimaldi, A Catalogue, Chronological and Descriptive of Paintings, Drawings, and Engravings, by and after William Grimaldi, R. A., Paris (London: Privately printed, 1873).

2. Sir Joshua Reynolds probably connected Grimaldi with the duke and duchess. Derek Winterbottom, The Grand Old Duke of York, digital edition (South Yorkshire: Pen and Sword Books, 2016), appendix.

3. He exhibited an enamel portrait of Reynolds at the Royal Academy in 1792; The Exhibition of the Royal Academy (London: T. Cadell, 1792), 24:10.

4. For more on the slip waistcoat, see the entry in this volume for Andrew Plimer, Portrait of a Man, ca. 1790, https://doi.org/10.37764/8322.5.1466.

5. See William Grimaldi, A Lady, 1815, 2 7/8 in. (7.3 cm) high, sold at Fine Portrait Miniatures, Bonhams, London, May 30, 2013, lot 140, https://www.bonhams.com/auction/20767/lot/140/; William Grimaldi, A Gentleman, 1826, 3 3/8 in. (8.5 cm) high, sold at Fine Portrait Miniatures, Bonhams, London, June 28, 2012, lot 127, https://www.bonhams.com/auction/19942/lot/127/.

6. William Grimaldi, after William Beechey, George III, 1800, watercolor on ivory, 5 7/16 x 4 3/4 in. (13.8 x 12 cm), Royal Collection Trust, London, RCIN 420656, https://www.rct.uk/collection/420656/george-iii-1738-1820; William Grimaldi, after William Beechey, Queen Charlotte, 1801, watercolor, Royal Collection Trust, London, RCIN 420657, https://www.rct.uk/collection/420657/queen-charlotte-1744-1818.

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. 156, as Unknown Man.

Ross E. Taggart, The Starr Collection of Miniatures in the William Rockhill Nelson Gallery (Kansas City, MO: Nelson Gallery-Atkins Museum, 1971), no. 156, p. 54, (repro.), as Unknown Man.