Elle Shushan - Fine Portrait Miniatures

04/23/2023

"In 17th and 18th century Europe, Black children trafficked from the African continent were used in visual art as a prop to highlight both the wealth and whiteness of their European enslavers. A regular feature of this Black child adornment was to add an expensive pearl earring to their decoration. The enslaved child was not seen as a person, but as a property that signified the wealth of the people or family who commissioned the portrait performance."
----Marjorie H.Morgan/ArtUKdotorg.

By Thomas Rowlandson - yes - that Rowlandson, the celebrated Georgian caricaturist, famed for his b***y satirical and political cartoons, who, after studying at the Royal Academy, produced a small number of strong portraits before turning to illustration.
Thomas Rowlandson (London, 1756-1827). Watercolor over pencil, signed, circa 1785.

See this lovely child at The Philadelphia Show, at the Philadelphia Museum of Art, April 27-30.
The Philadelphia Show Philadelphia Museum of Art

10/26/2021

Mary Way began her artistic career making paper dolls. Her “dressed miniatures” profile portraits in watercolor, were actually attired using painted paper, cloth, ribbons and lace. Advertising that she would teach young ladies “Painting, Tambour, Embroidery, Lace Work on Muslin, Reading, Writing, Plain Sewing &c,” in 1809 Way opened a school in her hometown of New London, Connecticut. Finally, at the age of 42 (late middle-age in 1811), she had saved enough to move to New York City. There she met and received informal instruction from the best – John Wesley Jarvis, Joseph Wood and Anson Dickinson. Leaving her quirky profile portraits behind, Way began executing polished portraits on ivory. Recording all she had learned in letters to her sister and niece, both also artists, these are the finest surviving documents on the techniques of miniature painting in Federal New York. But after only 9 years there, like so many other miniaturists, Mary Way lost her sight. When she returned to her family in Connecticut, The American Academy of Fine Arts held a benefit exhibition in her honor.

"The Way Sisters: Miniaturists of the Early Republic" opens at the Lyman Allen Museum in New London, Connecticut on Friday, October 29th, with a fully illustrated catalogue. This is a ground-breaking exhibition - the first ever detailing the remarkable work of Mary Way and her sister, Elizabeth Way Champlain. Lyman Allyn Art Museum

09/15/2021

Finally! Available at your local independent bookshop. Or Amazon - where "Lovers Eyes" is already the #1 new release in Art books!

04/24/2021

The Philadelphia Show is open! Shop till you drop at -ThePhiladelphiaShow.viewingrooms.com until April 30th.
Enjoy!

11/01/2020

Opening Today!
The premiere TEFAF Online, November 1 - 4.
Register: TEFAF.com
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Derrick Guild, RSA "Ever After, Kruseman, Hodges and Batoni.”
Oil on linen in individual frames of gold plated alloy wiith convex glass, 11 x 8 inches, 2020

10/30/2020

TEFAF
A different online experience - November 1- 4, 2020

10/25/2020

A different only experience - one week away!
TEFAF

10/16/2020

A different online experience.
Register .com TEFAF

06/29/2020

Art from the American Frontier. When, in 1813, artist Richard Verbryck arrived in Cincinnati, it was the frontier. Though self-taught, Verbryck placed a lofty ad touting “drawings and paintings and portraits and landscapes,” all created at Harlow’s tavern on Front Street. The Clopper family, who, like Verbryck, descended from early Dutch settlers in New York, owned a general store on Main Street. In 1827, before their father and three brothers left for the newer frontiers in Texas, the Clopper children decided to all have their miniatures painted “...the boys to leave theirs with their sisters so that there might be a likeness of each to look upon in their absence.” Edward M. Clopper noted in his book “An American Family” about his remarkable ancestors, that “The artist was a customer of the Cloppers, as the Cloppers were patrons of the artist - a refinement of the barter system.” Verbryck’s fee was paid in “sundries.” MaryAnn Catherine Clopper (1807-1875) and Rachel Ruhamah Clopper (1809-1845) were the youngest of the 11 Clopper children. They attended the Cincinnati Female Academy, taught Sunday School and helped run the general store. Predictably - neither ever married.
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Richard Verbryck (1783-1866), portraits of Rachel Ruhamah Clopper & MaryAnn Catherine Clopper, 1827.

02/12/2020

His miniatures “were not fashionable - they were fashion itself.” - William Hazlett.

Even in his earliest portraits, flamboyant miniaturist Richard Cosway understood the importance of accoutrement. He painted this tiny (only 3 cm high) portrait of the luminous Harriet Budd while still a student, circa 1762. Cosway only got better - soon he was dictating fashion to the Prince of Wales.

Richard Cosway (1742-1821) Portrait of Harriet Budd, circa 1762.

01/16/2020

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/01/16/arts/design/Andrew-LaMar-Hopkins-New-Orleans-winter-show-.html?searchResultPosition=1

Andrew LaMar Hopkins celebrates the rich contributions of 19th-Century New Orleans in his folk art style (and drag).

01/10/2020

Describing himself as a “realist folk artist,” self-taught Andrew LaMar Hopkins relates, in his vividly detailed paintings, the daily life of Antebellum New Orleans. Hopkins, who is of Creole descent, creates effervescent images of a world whose ghosts are still visible today.

Hopkins’ first New York exhibition will be at The Winter Show, Park Avenue Armory, January 23 - February 2. thewintershownyc

Andrew LaMar Hopkins, "Mauvais Garcons Playing Craps," 2019.

11/21/2019

‘My mother was bad, but she would not have become as bad as she was if my father had not been infinitely worse.’ A common problem - except her father was the Prince Regent (later King George IV) and her mother was Princess Caroline of Brunswick. The profligate Prince had amassed staggering debts of $84 million in today’s money. The King agreed to pay them if George would marry a proper German Princess. The Prince (already married to Mrs. Fitzherbert) had no interest in making the choice - “one Frau is the same as another,” so the King picked his own niece, a slovenlygirl with no interest in hygiene. Discussing their wedding night, the Prince said openly “it required no small effort to overcome the disgust of her person.” That was their only night together; it produced the bright, cheerful and headstrong Princess Charlotte. The only legitimate grandchild of George III, Charlotte became the hope of a nation ravaged by war, demoralized by the rule of Mad George III and disgusted at the prospect of hedonistic George IV. "Hail Princess Charlotte, Europe's Hope and Britain's Glory." She married for love - the dashing Prince Leopold of Saxe-Coburg (later to be Queen Victoria’s calculating Uncle Leopold, King of the Belgians.) The nation adored them. But happiness was short. Charlotte died in childbirth only 18 months later. The massive mourning of Britain was not seen again until the death of Diana.
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Princess Charlotte of Wales sculpted in wax by Samuel Percy. In the collection of the National Portrait Gallery, London.

11/14/2019

Sofonisba Anguissola was a Renaissance woman. Really. The uncommonly gifted daughter of a noble father with more ambition than money, he pushed and promoted; he got her instruction from Michelangelo. But Sofonisba's talent was what made her the best known woman artist in the world - at least the world of 1560. A star, she was recruited as court painter to Philip II of Spain -- he fixed her up with her first husband, the son of the Viceroy of Sicily, even providing a dowry. After leaving Spain and that husband, Sofanisba worked in Genoa, Pisa and Palermo, caught herself a second husband and lived on happily until the age of 93, collecting adoring fans like Van Dyck along the way. A testament to Sofonisba's celebrity, 200 years later and a New World away, another artist who was also a pushy father, famously named his children after the artists he wanted them to be. Charles Willson Peale had a Titian, a Rembrandt, a Raphael - and a Sofinisba.
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A remarkable teenage self-portrait in the collection of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston

10/18/2019

This little urchin should have 100 stories - all with happy endings. But time has robbed him of his tales, even his name. So instead - enjoy his little smile and imagine the tune from his chubby fingers.
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French School, circa 1785.
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See his next performance at TEFAF New York, Park Avenue Armory, November 1-5.

10/11/2019

He was, as doting parents would say, “advanced.” Montague Garrard Drake came into the family fortune and estates at the age of 6. He entered Oxford at 13, left for the Grand Tour at 18 and as soon as he reached 21, followed family tradition by becoming the 4th generation to serve as MP for Amersham. Of course, to achieve the win, he had to buy several inns in the district to secure the votes of their tenants. His profligate lifestyle assured that he would follow another family tradition - marry an heiress to fortify the coffers. He found Isabella Marshall, the daughter of a wealthy London merchant with apparently unlimited resources, to take the job. As a result of his lavish living, Drake died of gout at the age of 36, leaving his 4 year old son William in charge. As a final extravagant gesture, he commissioned a magnificent memorial to himself from Peter Scheemakers for the enormous amount of 500 guineas. It stands to this day in the Drake Chapel in Saint Mary the Virgin Churchyard, Amersham.
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The Rt. Hon. Montague Garrard Drake (1692-1728) by Bernard Lens, III, signed & dated 1708.
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Montague Garrard Drake will experience more splendor than even he could have imagined at TEFAF New York at the Park Avenue Armory, November 1-5.

10/02/2019

In 1805, 19 year old Maria Bellett Roberts left her parents’ substantial home in Somerset to travel to Calcutta with her brother. Possibly seeking adventure, but more likely seeking a husband where the odds were sometimes calculated at 40 to 1, it took Maria only a year to become the wife of Colonel Marmaduke Browne of the Royal Artillery. Mrs. Browne, a glittering hostess, often entertained George Chinnery, India’s most celebrated portraitist. Already a talented amateur artist, Mrs. Browne began taking instruction from Chinnery, quickly becoming Chinnery’s most accomplished student. She collaborated with Chinnery on his “Treatise” defining the theory and practice of painting. His letters to her (British Museum) spell out his methods of painting miniatures. As a result of this enviable training, Maria, who often signed her works “Mrs Marmaduke Browne,” become one of the most popular miniaturists in Calcutta. Her account book listing her sitters was a primarily a list of her friends (whom she rarely charged) -- Sir Charles & Lady D’Oyly, Lord Moira and Mrs. Siddons. After giving birth to 4 children, with her health failing, in 1823 Maria Bellett Browne ended her India adventure, returning to her family in Somerset where she died in 1828.
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Jane Eliza Russell, later Lady Russell, by Maria Bellett Browne, noted in the artist’s account book, 1816.
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One of a select collection of portrait miniatures by British artists working in India to be exhibited at TEFAF New York opening a month from today at the Park Avenue Armory.