# Captain Joseph Anthony

- By: Walter Robertson (Irish, born Dublin, Ireland ca. 1750-died Fatehpur, India 1801/02)
- Date: 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
- Credit line: Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Ruel P. Tolman
- Museum: [Smithsonian Institution](https://americanart.si.edu/collections/search/artwork/?id=21060)
- Rights: [CC0 (Smithsonian Open Access)](https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/)
- Picture: https://invisiblenetwork.ai/thumbs/web/3e5c57977e62bda328019a7bff0d13bd.jpg
- Who can see it: Teens profiles and older (museums give no ratings; placed by Invisible Network from the museum's own words)

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.