Portrait of a Man
1795
unspecified
From the collection of Cleveland Museum of Art
About the artist
Artist
Nathaniel Plimer
Nathaniel Plimer (1757–1822) was an English miniature portrait painter.
See the richer artist page1795
unspecified
From the collection of Cleveland Museum of Art
Dominant colour
Portrait of a Man is a 1795 unspecified by Nathaniel Plimer, a British Romanticism work, held at Cleveland Museum of Art.
You see a man in a pale green coat, his powdered hair tied with a black ribbon. His gray eyes look straight at you, and his white cravat is knotted under his chin. Plimer painted tiny dots for eyelashes and soft stippling—little flicks of the brush—for shadows. That’s how he made skin look smooth without blending. This portrait was likely meant to hang with another, like a pair. Look up "sfumato" to see how other artists softened edges without dots.
The sitter's powdered hair is tied with a dark bow below the shoulders. He has gray eyes and wears a greenish-gray coat, white shirt, and cravat tied in a bow under his chin. The background is very pale, with ivory ground visible, but faintly light blue close to the head. Among the hallmarks of Nathaniel Plimer’s technique was the use of delicate stippling for the shadows of the face and the application of individual dots of paint to create the lower eyelashes. This portrait is probably the pendant to 1941.562.2 . The female portrait is slightly larger than the male, and both date from c.…
This piece has a companion in the collection, 1941.562.2 , although their relationship is unknown.
Read the full account in the museum source.
Nathaniel Plimer (1757–1822) was an English miniature portrait painter.
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