Philadelphia Antiques Show 2022

89 THE PH I LADE L PH I A SHOW Portrait of a Gentleman, 1807 John Wesley Jarvis (1780-1840) 3 ⁄ x 2 ½ inches Collection of Richard and Ginger Dietrich 2009 PATRIOTS AND PRESIDENTS The 2009 loan exhibit immersed visitors into the art of miniatures through an extraordinary array of the very personal portraits painted of early Philadelphians “Patriots and Presidents: Philadelphia Portrait Miniatures 1760-1860.” Small in scale and elaborately framed—some encrusted with jewels—the portraits were typically painted in watercolor on ivory discs, and they were hung on ribbons or chains and worn close to the body. They were delicate and fragile and susceptible to fade if exposed to too much light. Like a religious icon, these personal images evoked an emotional response, especially when given as a gi . Carol Eaton Soltis, a curator in the museum’s American art department and an expert in miniatures, opened her essay in the catalogue with a quote fromWilliam Dunlap’s History of the Rise and Progress of the Arts of Design in the United States : “The painter of miniatures has…even more than the painter in large…the satisfaction of knowing that he exerts his skill in behalf of the best feelings of our nature…[His] delicate and exquisitely touched work is dependent on…seemingly fragile materials…and [yet] will for years to come, raise sensations in the bosoms of those who gaze on them, which may rival any excited by the works of their brethren, that are displayed in gallery and hall.” (volume 2, 1834; Dover reprint, 1969, p.401). European born and trained artists such as Jean-Pierre-Henri Elouis (1755-1840) and Pierre Henri (1760-1822) passed through Philadelphia in the late 18th century and throughout the 19th century, picking up commissions to paint miniatures. Benjamin Trott (1770-1843) painted miniatures of Philadelphia sitters o en a er they had sat for full length portraits by Gilbert Stuart (1755-1828) or Thomas Sully (1783-1872. The rich colors and sensitive treatments of Edward Greene Malbone (1777-1807) who hailed from Newport, Rhode Island, made him the most highly desirable miniaturist during his short life. He shared his skills as an instructor in miniature painting with artists such as John Wesley Jarvis, whose work is on view here. While Jarvis’s bespeckled dandy of a sitter is unidentified, his eccentric pose captures today’s viewer by surprise. NewOrleans native Elle Shushan, who is internationally accepted as the preeminent dealer and expert in portrait miniatures, wrote of this Jarvis portrait, “The haughty grandeur of his sitter in 1807 Ray Bans…epitomizes his stylish circle. Perfectly illustrating his hide in plain sight rule about backgrounds, the sitter is placed against monochromatic shades of gray.” (from “How American found its face: Portrait miniature in the New Republic,” The Magazine Antiques , April 2009, p.26) In a pendant to Soltis’s Philadelphia-focused essay in the show catalogue, Shushan wrote of how the work of four artists—Malbone, Anson Dickinson (1779-1852), Joseph Wood (1778-1830), and Jarvis—who convened in New York around 1804 created a unique American style in miniature painting.