January 2012 - Four American additions

Predictably, I am again behind with adding miniatures to the website, but there here are four American miniature portraits recently acquired for the collection.

The pair of ladies are unknown sitters by an unknown artist, but my pick is that they are mother and daughter, see View

The young man depicted is also unknown, but the miniature has been attributed to the well known artist John Wood Dodge, see View

The other miniature portrait is an engraving, which is almost outside the scope of this collection. When purchased the sitter was unknown, but I believed the engraving was by St Memin who was famous for miniature portraits of this nature.

However, with the kind help of the Smithsonian it was possible to identify the artist as Louis Lemet, who took over the business of St Memin. Lemet's work is far less common than that of St Memin.

The Smithsonian was also able to identify the sitter as Colonel Joseph Shippen (1732-1810) from a prominent Philadelphia family which produced several mayors of Philadelphia.

Around c1767 he wrote some verses praising the early "belles" of Philadelphia which can be read at View