Unknown, Portrait of a Boy, ca. 1770

Chicago:

Maggie Keenan, “Unknown, Portrait of a Boy, ca. 1770,” 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/10.37764/8322.5.1658.

MLA:

Keenan, Maggie. “Unknown, Portrait of a Boy, ca. 1770,” 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: 10.37764/8322.5.1658.

Previously attributed to Abraham Daniel, this work diverges from that artist’s recognized style, characterized by smooth and painterly qualities.¹ Daniel’s distinctive technique typically emphasizes the upper eyes and eyelids with thick, dark strokes, so that they stand out from the minutely intricate brushwork of the rest of the portrait. In contrast, the unknown artist of this work only faintly indicates the sitter’s eyes and eyebrows, instead capturing attention through the boy’s ruddy complexion. The artist details this with stippling throughout the face, most prominently in the cheeks, which creates texture and contrast against the sitter’s shockingly white neck and chest.²

The distinguishing clothing helps date the work to around 1770, when boys’ clothes were not unlike those of their fathers: relaxed open collars, jackets, and vests.³ This was before the trend of breeching boys, depicted in George Engleheart’s (1750–1829) Portrait of a Boy.⁴ Portraits of children were an extremely popular subject for miniatures, due to infants’ short life expectancy as well as miniatures’ ability to be set in a brooch, locket, or bracelet, which allowed parents to keep their children close to their hearts. Here, the boy’s features sit low in his face, below a large swath of pale golden hair. The painting is extremely flat; light reflects off his blonde hair, but otherwise the portrait lacks any three-dimensionality. The young boy’s long, mop-like haircut further supports the approximate date of circa 1770.

Notes

1. While Daniel’s miniatures are often confused with those of his brother, Joseph Daniel (1760–1803), this portrait cannot be attributed to either. For an example of Abraham’s work, see A Young Gentleman, ivory, 2 1/4 in. (5.7 cm) high, sold at Christie’s, “Centuries of Style,” December 5, 2015, lot 408, https://www.christies.com/lot/lot-5955182; and Abraham Daniel or Joseph Daniel, A Young Boy, ivory, 2 3/4 in. (7 cm) high, sold at Christie’s, “Centuries of Style,” June 3, 2014, lot 136, https://www.christies.com/lot/lot-5795811.

2. The composition closely resembles a Henry Bone (1755–1834) copy of a Richard Crosse (1742–1810) miniature. See Henry Bone, after Richard Crosse, Richard Colley Wellesley, Marquess Wellesley as a Boy, 1767, pen and ink, 3 1/4 x 2 1/4 in. (8.2 x 5.7 cm), National Portrait Gallery, London, NPG D17412, https://www.npg.org.uk/collections/search/portrait/mw119647/Richard-Colley-Wellesley-Marquess-Wellesley-as-a-boy. See also Attributed to Edward Miles, A Young Boy, 1 3/4 in. (4.4 cm) high, sold at Christie’s, London, “Miniatures,” October 14, 1998, lot 53, https://www.christies.com/lot/lot-1318533.

3. For comparison, see Style of Samuel Shelley, Portrait of a Boy, about 1770, ivory, 1 1/4 x 1 in. (3.3 x 2.7 cm), Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 62.122.32, https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/437665; and Francis Wheatley, A Family Group in a Landscape, ca. 1775, oil paint on canvas, 40 x 50 in. (101.6 x 127 cm), Tate Britain, London, N03678, https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/wheatley-a-family-group-in-a-landscape-n03678.

4. Jacqueline Reinier, “Breeching,” Encyclopedia of Children and Childhood: In History and Society, ed. Paula S. Fass (New York: Macmillan Reference, 2004), 118; Ruth Rubinstein, Society’s Child: Identity, Clothing, and Style (New York: Avalon, 2000), 62.

With an unknown owner, by 1949;

Purchased from the unknown owner’s sale, Fine Sicilian Jewellery, Objects of Vertu, Fine Portrait Miniatures, Sotheby’s, London, October 27, 1949, lot 126, as by Abraham Daniel, Miniature of a Boy, by Leggatt Brothers, London, probably on behalf of Mr. John W. (1905–2000) and Mrs. Martha Jane (1906–2011) Starr, Kansas City, MO, 1949–1958 [1];

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

Notes

[1] According to the sales catalogue, “Other Properties” sold lots 70–126. The lot description states, “An Attractive Miniature of a Boy, by Abraham Daniel of Bath, head and shoulders three-quarters dexter, gaze directed at spectator, wispy flaxen hair falling to a white collar over a brown coat, pale blue vest, mounted as a brooch, 1 3/4 in.” The annotated catalogue for this sale is located at University of Missouri-Kansas City’s Miller Nichols Library. The annotations are most likely by Mr. or Mrs. Starr. The annotations include a circled lot number, checkmark, “Leggatt” and “20.” According to an attached price list, Leggatt bought lot 126 for 20 pounds. Archival research has shown that Leggatt Brothers served as purchasing agents for the Starrs. See correspondence between Betty Hogg and Martha Jane Starr, May 15 and June 3, 1950, Nelson-Atkins curatorial files.

Catalogue of Fine Sicilian Jewellery, Objects of Vertu, Fine Portrait Miniatures, (London: Sotheby’s, October 27, 1949), lot 126, as by Abraham Daniel, Miniature of a Boy.

Ross E. Taggart, The Starr Collection of Miniatures in the William Rockhill Nelson Gallery (Kansas City, MO: Nelson Gallery-Atkins Museum, 1971), no. 184, p. 62 (repro.), as by Abraham Daniel, Unknown Young Boy.