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Captain Joseph Anthony
Walter Robertson (Irish, born Dublin, Ireland ca. 1750-died Fatehpur, India 1801/02)
ca. 1794
- Medium
- watercolor on ivory
- Classification
- Paintings
- Dimensions
- sight 2 3/4 x 2 1/4 in. (7.0 x 5.7 cm) oval
- Museum
- Smithsonian Institution, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Painting and Sculpture
- Credit line
- Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Ruel P. Tolman
- Rights
- CC0 (Smithsonian Open Access), as the museum states it.
- Who can see it
- Teens profiles and older: its subject is for older viewers (war, death, the Passion, drink or the like). How works are placed
View at the Smithsonian Institution
About this work
Captain Joseph Anthony (1738-1798) was a prosperous Philadelphia merchant. His son Joseph Jr. became a prominent silversmith, and his son Josiah, a fellow merchant. The miniature of Josiah Hewes Anthony is in this collection [see 1952.12.2]. On the back of Captain Anthony’s miniature is a second painting---a mourning scene, with two female figures holding two bluebirds and a red rose. They sit next to a large funerary urn under a massive tree, a temple behind them in the rolling landscape. The tree and grass are made with clippings of hair, and braided locks---perhaps from the captain himself---adorn the perimeter of the image. This second painting is clearly by a different artist, and was probably added to the miniature after the captain’s death.
