After Marie Gabrielle Capet, Portrait of a Woman and Child, late 19th/early 20th century

This portrait miniature was long thought to be by Marie Gabrielle Capet due to its inscription. It is more likely a copy after an original work by Capet. It lacks the subtlety in shading and coloring for which Capet was known. We are grateful to Bernd Pappe for his insight on the attribution of this miniature during a visit to the Nelson-Atkins from July 24–26, 2023 (see Bernd Pappe, “Attribution Report,” August 6, 2023, Nelson-Atkins curatorial files).

With an unknown owner, by November 13, 1952;

Purchased from the unknown owner’s sale, Catalogue of Fine Objects of Vertu, Watches, Enamels, Ivories, Portrait Miniatures, Etc., Sotheby’s, London, November 13, 1952, lot 137, as A French Miniature of a Mother and Child, by Mr. John W. (1905–2000) and Mrs. Martha Jane (1906–2011) Starr, Kansas City, MO, 1952–1958 [1];

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

Notes

[1] The Philbrook Museum of Art (Tulsa) records that their Sketch of a Lady by John Smart (58.17.9) was “purchased by auction” at the same 1952 sale as Portrait of a Woman and Child. The Starrs frequently purchased multiple miniatures at auction. With thanks to Maggie Keenan for uncovering this reference.

Marie Gabrielle Capet, A Mother and a Child in a Landscape, 1793, watercolor and bodycolor on ivory, 3 1/3 in. (8.5 cm), sold at The Pohl-Ströher Collection of Portrait Miniatures Part I, Sotheby’s, London, December 6, 2018, lot 112.

The Starr Foundation Collection of Miniatures, The Royal Ontario Museum, Toronto, December 8, 1972–January 14, 1973, no cat., no. 240, as Unknown Lady and Child.

Martha Jane and John W. Starr, “Collecting Portrait Miniatures,” Antiques 80, no. 5 (November 1961): front cover, (repro.), as Portrait of a Lady and Child.

Ross E. Taggart, The Starr Collection of Miniatures in the William Rockhill Nelson Gallery (Kansas City, MO: Nelson Gallery-Atkins Museum, 1971), no. 240, p. 78, (repro.), as Unknown Lady and Child.

Edward Bucher and Bodo Hofstetter, Französische Miniaturen 1770–880: Aus der Sammlung E.P.S. (Darmstadt: Facsimilia Art and Edition, 2001), 402.