Walter Robertson, Portrait of a Man, ca. 1777

Chicago:

Aimee Marcereau DeGalan, “Walter Robertson, Portrait of a Man, ca. 1777,” 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/10.37764/8322.5.1488.

MLA:

Marcereau DeGalan, Aimee. “Walter Robertson, Portrait of a Man, ca. 1777,” 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: 10.37764/8322.5.1488.

See the artist’s biography in volume 4.

This jewel-toned miniature of a man dates to the first active decade of Walter Robertson’s career in Dublin, before he moved to London in 1784. It presents a head-and-shoulder portrait of a middle-aged man facing left, wearing a deep blue overcoat, a white jabot, and a light gray waistcoat edged in brilliant gold. The sitter confronts the viewer’s gaze with piercing blue eyes, and he wears a powdered bag wig with remnants of fresh white powder on the collar of his jacket. He appears against a deep sea-green background, and the miniature is set in an original double-sided case, known as an Irish case because of the inclusion of a braided hair border; the reverse of the case also features a larger section of braided hair with the gold initials “JR.”

Hairwork is a commemorative element that could signal a union or mark a loss. While a portrait miniature can provide a visual substitution for a person, hair formed a physical, tangible, and imperishable connection.¹ Together, miniatures and hairwork served to maintain a bond between the sitter and the beholder, whether separated by distance or death. Like many of his contemporaries, Walter Robertson recognized the importance of hairwork to potential clients, taking out an advertisement around 1774, shortly after he moved to 17 Augnier Street in Dublin.² He announced that “he will duly receive and execute the commands of his friends and the public in taking likenesses and designs in hair and painting as usual.”³ The process to prepare hair for inclusion in a miniature was onerous. Even simple plaits, as seen on the back of this miniature, required a process of cleansing the hair of impurities, impregnating it with adhesive, and working it on a palette.⁴ Considering the extensive hairwork on this miniature, it is possible that whoever commissioned it sought out Robertson because of his particular skill in this medium.

Robertson’s style was singular, but William Dunlap, a biographer of portrait miniaturists, felt his coloring was highly artificial: “All ages and complexions were of the same hue—and yet there was a charm in his coloring that pleased, in despite of taste.”⁵ In fact, miniaturist Benjamin Trott (American, 1769–1843), working a generation later, was reportedly so envious of Robertson’s highly colored visages that he “half obliterated” a miniature in his possession in an attempt to discover Robertson’s technique. Dunlap indicated that “to dive into the secret [of Robertson’s colors], [Trott] made his way beneath the surface like a mole, in equal darkness.”⁶ Indeed, Robertson’s colors are strong, and they are applied thickly, with no ivory showing through. Their saturation mimics oil painting, and his works would have appeared like little gems in miniature compared to the work of other artists, like Richard Cosway, who exploited the watercolor medium and the ivory substrate for their subtler, yet luminous tones and effects.

Whether intended as a token of love or loss, this vibrant miniature of a middle-aged Dublin gentleman, with intricately braided hair surrounds on both the front and back, commemorates this sitter’s life in brilliant color.

Notes

1. Cynthia Amnéus, “The Art of Ornamental Hairwork,” in Julie Aronson and Marjorie E. Wieseman, Perfect Likeness: European and American Portrait Miniatures from the Cincinnati Art Museum (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2006), 64.

2. For a list of addresses of Robertson’s many residences, See Walter G. Strickland, A Dictionary of Irish Artists (Dublin and London: Maunsel & Co: 1913), 2:287.

3. Cited in Strickland, Dictionary of Irish Artists, 2:287.

4. Amnéus, “Art of Ornamental Hairwork,” 66.

5. See William Dunlap, History of the Rise and Progress of the Arts of Design in the United States (New York: George P. Scott and Co., 1834), 414.

6. See Dunlap, History of the Rise and Progress, 414. For an example of Trott’s work, see Portrait of E. J. Winter.

Mr. John W. (1905–2000) and Mrs. Martha Jane (1906–2011) Starr, Kansas City, MO, by 2011;

By descent to their son, Mr. John Philip (b. 1933), and daughter-in-law, Mrs. Barry Mann (b. 1939) Starr, Kansas City, MO, 2011–2017;

Given to their son, James Philip Starr (b. 1965), Kansas City, MO, 2017–2018;

His gift to The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, MO, 2018.