Artwork
Portrait of a Lady
Portrait of a Lady is a watercolor painting. It dates from 1835 and is held in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
About this work
Subject & Meaning
1 centimeters, is characteristic of such personal objects, which were typically held in the hand or worn as jewelry rather than displayed publicly.
The miniature portrays an unnamed woman, identified only as a "lady" in the work's title. The sitter is anonymous, with no information in the available sources about her identity, social standing, or family connections.
As a portrait miniature executed in watercolor on ivory, the work belongs to a tradition of small-scale likenesses produced in the 1830s for private keepsakes and tokens of affection. The intimate scale of the piece, measuring roughly 6.4 by 5.1 centimeters, is characteristic of such personal objects, which were typically held in the hand or worn as jewelry rather than displayed publicly.
The sources provide no details about the sitter's clothing, pose, attributes, or symbolic objects, and offer no interpretation of the work's meaning beyond its function as a portrait of a woman.
Technique & Style
Portrait of a Lady is executed in watercolor on ivory, a miniature format suited to the small dimensions of 6.4 by 5.1 centimeters recorded for the work. The choice of ivory as a support was characteristic of nineteenth-century portrait miniatures, providing a smooth, luminous ground that lent itself to the delicate handling of watercolor washes. The technique allowed for fine, translucent layering of pigment to model the sitter's features with precision and subtlety.
Stylistically, the work belongs to the tradition of intimate keepsake portraiture, with the small scale and refined handling emphasizing the sitter's likeness rather than broader narrative content. The portrait depicts a woman, rendered in a manner consistent with anonymous American miniature practice of the period.
History & Provenance
The work is held by The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, where it is recorded with the accession number 2006.235.243. No further provenance or exhibition history is documented in the available sources.
Overview
This intimate artwork, titled Portrait of a Lady, is a watercolor executed on an ivory support. It depicts a woman in a dark dress, her gaze directed forward. The small scale of the piece suggests it was created as a miniature, a common format for personal portraits. Housed within the American Wing, it exemplifies a particular tradition of portraiture.
Context
Miniature portraits like this one gained considerable popularity, particularly during an era when personal mementos were highly valued. Their diminutive size made them ideal for inclusion in lockets or small cases, allowing individuals to keep images of loved ones close at hand. This format served as a private, portable form of portraiture, distinct from larger, more formal oil paintings.
Artist & collection
