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Member of the Carroll Family
ca. 1825
- Medium
- watercolor on ivory
- Classification
- Paintings
- Dimensions
- 2 3/8 x 2 in. (6.0 x 5.1 cm) oval
- Museum
- Smithsonian Institution, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Painting and Sculpture
- Credit line
- Smithsonian American Art Museum, Museum purchase through the Catherine Walden Myer Fund
- Rights
- CC0 (Smithsonian Open Access), as the museum states it.
- Who can see it
- Tweens profiles and older: its subjects are known and suit older children. How works are placed
View at the Smithsonian Institution
About this work
The cream- and rose-colored hues in the background of this miniature complement the sitter’s dreamy expression. The unknown artist chose to emphasize the gentleman’s high forehead, a physical characteristic that, in the nineteenth century, was thought to reveal a poetic intelligence. On the miniature’s reverse, the artist painted a full portrait of a young woman bordered by trees and sky. The natural setting and the woman’s long flowing gown create a sentimental portrait of the gentleman’s lover.
