Andrew Plimer, Portrait of a Woman, 1787

Chicago:

Maggie Keenan, “Andrew Plimer, Portrait of a Woman, 1787,” 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/10.37764/8322.5.1462.

MLA:

Keenan, Maggie. “Andrew Plimer, Portrait of a Woman, 1787,” 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: 10.37764/8322.5.1462.

See the artist’s biography in volume 4.

This work is signed and dated “A.P / 1787,” marking the last year that Andrew Plimer signed and dated his miniatures and the first year he and his brother, Nathaniel, began exhibiting at the Royal Academy in London.¹ The woman’s elaborate powdered hair reflects the fashions of the time, and Plimer’s enjoyment in painting the perfectly styled curls is apparent. Each strand of hair is carefully rendered, with the natural black color subtly shining through the white powder and creating an overall gray tint, echoing the storm clouds at the bottom right of the oval composition.

The sitter’s mouse-like features contribute to her youthful and innocent demeanor. Her muslin fichu is secured with a blue bow, concealing the top of her dress. Plimer experiments with color in her clothing: rosy-pink paint strokes are visible in the hatching at one side of the fichu with complementary olive green along the other edge. Her informal dress contrasts with her erect posture.

The portrait’s fausse montre, or false watch, case top indicates that it was once used as a counterbalance for a watch on a chatelaine.² A later addition of rose-cut diamonds on the case back spells “AB,” which rests above a peculiar ornamentation of brown hair art. A hot iron was likely applied to the hair, creating a uniquely crimped appearance.³ While the contents of the case may have been fitted together over time, it is tempting to speculate about how they might relate to the unknown subject of this portrait.

Notes

1. Nathaniel Plimer exhibited a portrait of a lady, and Andrew exhibited “a lady in the character of a gypsy” and “a frame with three portraits”; The Exhibition of the Royal Academy (London: T. Cadell, 1787), 19:10–12.

2. According to conversations with Carol Aiken, March 19–23, 2018, notes in NAMA curatorial files. See also Susanne Gänsicke and Yvonne J. Markowitz, Looking at Jewelry: A Guide to Terms, Styles, and Techniques (Los Angeles: J. Paul Getty Museum, 2019), 122.

3. For a reference book of hair patterns, see Garnet Terry, A Book of New and Allegorical Devices, for Artists in General (London: Bowles and Carver, 1795), 7. Figure 27 could either be a similar pleated hair pattern or a basic weave; it is difficult to tell in the engraving.

Harry Gordon Bois (1869–1946), Westminster, Middlesex, England, by 1946;

Purchased from his posthumous sale, A Fine Collection of Gold and Enamel Boxes, Etc. and Portrait Miniatures, Sotheby’s, London, March 27, 1947, lot 129, as A Lady, by Bartle Charles Philip (1886–1949) and Elsie Gertrude (1888–1967) Kehoe, Saltdean, Sussex, 1947–1950 [1];

Purchased from Elsie Kehoe’s sale, Objects of Vertu, Fine Watches, Etc., Sotheby’s, London, June 15, 1950, lot 168, as A Lady, by Reynolds, 1950 [2];

Mr. John W. (1905–2000) and Mrs. Martha Jane (1906–2011) Starr, Kansas City, MO, by 1958;

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

Notes

[1] Described in the catalogue as “An Early Miniature of a Lady, by Andrew Plimer, signed and dated 1787, head and shoulders three-quarters dexter, gaze directed at spectator, her massed hair falling in curls to the shoulders, white dress with blue bow, cloud and sky background, monogram ‘NLB’ in diamonds at the back, 2 1/2 in. Another unsigned miniature of the same lady was sold in these Rooms in the Ashcroft Collection, Sotheby’s May, 1946, pl. 67.”

[2] Described in the catalogue as “A Miniature of a Lady, by Andrew Plimer, signed and dated 1787, head and shoulders three-quarters dexter, curly grey hair and white dress, with a blue ribbon in the corsage, cloud and sky background, the hair at back with a monogram in rose diamonds, oval, 2 1/2 in. From the H. Gordon Bois Collection, Sotheby’s, March, 1947, lot 129. Another miniature of the same lady in the Ashcroft Collection, 1946, was also sold in these Rooms and illustrated in the Catalogue, pl. 6, no. 67.” “Reynolds” bought lot 168 for 28 pounds.

Andrew Plimer, A Lady, sold at Fine Portrait Miniatures, Gold Boxes, Objects of Vertu, Etc., the property of F. N. Ashcroft and Mrs. O. S. Ashcroft, Sotheby’s, London, May 7, 1946, lot 67.

The Starr Foundation Collection of Miniatures, The Royal Ontario Museum, Toronto, December 8, 1972–January 14, 1973, no cat., no. 168, as Unknown Lady.

Catalogue of A Fine Collection of Gold and Enamel Boxes, Etc. and Portrait Miniatures (London: Sotheby’s, March 27, 1947), 14.

Catalogue of Objects of Vertu, Fine Watches, Etc. (London: Sotheby’s, June 15, 1950), 22.

Ross E. Taggart, The Starr Collection of Miniatures in the William Rockhill Nelson Gallery (Kansas City, MO: Nelson Gallery-Atkins Museum, 1971), no. 168, p. 58, (repro.), as Unknown Lady.