Jeremiah Meyer, Portrait of a Man, ca. 1770

Chicago:

Blythe Sobol, “Jeremiah Meyer, Portrait of a Man, ca. 1770,” 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. 1, ed. Aimee Marcereau DeGalan (Kansas City, MO: Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, 2024), https://doi.org/10.37764/8322.5.2234.

MLA:

Sobol, Blythe. “Jeremiah Meyer, Portrait of a Man, ca. 1770,” 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. 1, Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, 2024. doi: 10.37764/8322.5.2234.

See the artist’s biography in volume 4.

The solid figure of this unknown man stands in contrast to the feminine delicacy of the jewel-like case, which is probably original to the miniature.¹ The sitter wears a wooly, dense wig in a style known as a bob wig. This sedate, comparatively naturalistic hairstyle was popularized during the reign of England’s King George II (1727–1760) but continued to be worn through the 1780s. Considered the least ostentatious style of wig, with a correspondingly affordable price tag, it was worn by men of the lower classes and those who preferred to affect an unpretentious appearance, such as doctors and clergymen.² This suggests a possible profession for the sitter. As he could afford to have his portrait painted by one of the premier artists of the Georgian court, he may have been a higher-ranking member of the clergy or a wealthy physician.

The sitter wears a flat-fronted blue coat whose sleek lines and comfortable cut were becoming unfashionable by the 1760s, suggesting again that the sitter was of a stodgier, provincial sort, without access to the latest London fashions (or the desire to follow them).³ The coat is simple and utilitarian but elegant, with its sole visible adornment the slim bands of gold galloon affixed to the buttonholes. Meyer painted the galloon and buttons in shades of yellow and brown, with gum arabic thickly applied to approximate the sheen and depth of gold. While the blue and gold of the clothing is still vibrant, there is some fading in the flesh tones, compounded by the silvery gray tones that Meyer favored, which are now predominant in many of his miniatures. Nevertheless, it remains a strong portrait due to Meyer’s skill in mastering the slippery medium of watercolor on ivory.

Notes

1. According to conservator Carol Aiken, the same workshop produced the case for a miniature by George Engleheart (English, 1750–1829); Meyer and Engleheart were friends and probably shared sources. See George Engleheart, Portrait of a Man; see also notes from conversation with Carol Aiken, 2019, Nelson-Atkins curatorial files. Of course, it is also possible the case was swapped out at a later date.

2. Kendra Van Cleave, 18th-Century Hair and Wig Styling: History and Step-by-Step Techniques (New York: Nice One!, 2014), 67–71. The most famous wearer of the bob wig was Samuel Johnson, creator of the first English dictionary, who continued wearing a bob wig until his death in 1784. Sir Joshua Reynolds, Portrait of Samuel Johnson (“Blinking Sam”), 1775, oil on canvas, 29 15/16 x 24 13/16 in. (76 x 63 cm), Huntington Library, Art Museum, and Botanical Gardens, San Marino, CA, 2006.22, https://emuseum.huntington.org/objects/48194/portrait-of-samuel-johnson-blinking-sam?ctx=374cae13299d6b7c4780118606565482ef25fbe3&idx=0.

3. Kathryn Hennessy and Anna Fischel, Fashion: The Definitive History of Costume and Style (New York: DK, 2012), 150.

Ethel Louisa Caroline Pauline Floersheim (1876–1959), Hove, Sussex, England, by 1950 [1];

Purchased from her sale, Objects of Art and Vertu, Miniatures, Watches, Faberge Cigarette Cases, Christie, Manson, and Woods, London, June 26, 1950, lot 104, as A Gentleman, by Leggatt Brothers, London, probably on behalf of Mr. John W. (1905–2000) and Mrs. Martha Jane (1906–2011) Starr, Kansas City, MO, 1950–1958 [2];

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

Notes

[1] Ethel L. C. Floersheim was born in 1876 to Louis Ferdinand Floersheim (1835–1917) and Julia Frances Ellis Eva Baddeley (1848–1931). In 1901, Ethel (along with her two siblings) inherited the family’s Pennyhill Park estate and £5,000 each. She never married and died in 1959 at the age of 83. With thanks to Maggie Keenan for this research.

[2] The lot is described as “Portrait of a gentleman, by J. Meyer, R.A., three-quarter face to the left, wearing blue coat and powdered wig, oval, 2in. high, in gold frame set with diamond sprays, in shagreen case.” This miniature is described in an annotated sale catalogue at the University of Missouri-Kansas City, Miller Nichols Library. The annotations were most likely made by Mr. or Mrs. Starr, with a circled lot number, an “X,” “40,” and a cursive “Leggatt.” Annotations indicate that it was purchased for £40 by Legatt. Two other miniatures were purchased from this sale by Leggatt for the Starrs: George Engleheart, Portrait of a Woman, ca. 1785, F58-60/43, and Richard Cosway, Portrait of a Man, Probably William Nathan Wright Hewett, ca. 1780 F58-60/178, both of which were illustrated in the catalogue. 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.

The Starr Foundation Collection of Miniatures, The Royal Ontario Museum, Toronto, December 8, 1972–January 14, 1973, no cat., no. 54, as Unknown Man.

Martha Jane and John W. Starr, “Collecting Portrait Miniatures,” Antiques 80, no. 5 (November 1961): 439, (repro.).

Ross E. Taggart, The Starr Collection of Miniatures in the William Rockhill Nelson Gallery (Kansas City, MO: Nelson Gallery-Atkins Museum, 1971), no. 54, p. 22, (repro.), as Unknown Man.