June 2007 - American and British miniatures

Especially prized this month, is the addition of a very rare copy of a book written by Anne Tuttle Jones Bullard (1808-1896). Her portrait is shown here and was acquired about four years ago. The book was published in Boston in 1833 and is titled "Louisa Ralston or What Can I Do For the Heathen". There are now four books by her in the collection. Their title pages and much more about Anne can be seen in the American 1 Gallery at Doyle, William - portrait of Anne Tuttle Jones...


Miniatures of young women dressed as brides are very rare, with this being the only one in the collection. These two miniatures of a bride and a young boy were both painted by Elizabeth M MacVicar in 1917. Elizabeth MacVicar is unrecorded as an artist, but may be Canadian, as the miniatures came from Canada and the name MacVicar seems to be more common there than in Britain. See MacVicar, Elizabeth M - portrait of a bride and MacVicar, Elizabeth M - portrait of a boy

Although Blattel classifies him as British, research has shown that Richard Curzon Poultney who painted this 1889 portrait of a young girl was an American artist from Baltimore. The miniature is interesting as a very early example of a miniature painted using more of an Impressionist palette, whereas for the previous fifty years, miniatures had tended to try and compete with daguerreotype images, see Poultney, Richard Curzon - portrait of a young lad...

The miniature of Mrs Alexander Hall in a pale yellow dress is by the British artist Annie Chisholm, for more detail see Chisholm, Annie - portrait of Mrs Alexander Hall

The miniature of a young boy in uniform is signed and dated 1925 by Edward Carlson from Chicago. He is unrecorded as a miniature painter, being more usually associated with landscapes and cityscapes, see Carlson, Edward W - portrait of a boy in uniform

Painted miniature portraits became increasingly uncommon after this date of 1925, which was painted only a very few years before the Great Depression made it very much harder for artists to obtain commissions.