{
"data": {
"id": 108522,
"accession_number": "1926.229",
"share_license_status": "CC0",
"tombstone": "Portrait of a Man, c. 1795\u20131800. Nicholas Freese (British, 1762\u2013after 1824). Watercolor on ivory in a gold frame with glazed hair reverse and opalescent glass over pressed foil and cut gold (or cut paper); framed: 7.6 x 6.5 cm (3 x 2 9/16 in.); unframed: 7 x 5.8 cm (2 3/4 x 2 5/16 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Gift of J. H. Wade Jr., G. G. Wade and Mrs. E. B. Greene, 1926.229",
"current_location": "203B British Painting and Decorative Arts",
"title": "Portrait of a Man",
"creation_date": "c. 1795\u20131800",
"creation_date_earliest": 1795,
"creation_date_latest": 1800,
"artists_tags": [
"male"
],
"culture": [
"England, late 18th century"
],
"technique": "watercolor on ivory in a gold frame with glazed hair reverse and opalescent glass over pressed foil and cut gold (or cut paper)",
"support_materials": [],
"department": "European Painting and Sculpture",
"collection": "P - British before 1800",
"type": "Portrait Miniature",
"measurements": "Framed: 7.6 x 6.5 cm (3 x 2 9/16 in.); Unframed: 7 x 5.8 cm (2 3/4 x 2 5/16 in.)",
"dimensions": {
"framed": {
"height": 0.076,
"height_inch": 3,
"height_inch_fraction": 0.0,
"width": 0.065,
"width_inch": 2,
"width_inch_fraction": 0.5625
},
"unframed": {
"height": 0.07,
"height_inch": 2,
"height_inch_fraction": 0.75,
"width": 0.058,
"width_inch": 2,
"width_inch_fraction": 0.3125
}
},
"state_of_the_work": null,
"edition_of_the_work": null,
"copyright": null,
"inscriptions": [],
"exhibitions": {
"current": [
{
"id": 311503,
"title": "Intimate Images: Portrait Miniatures from Europe and America",
"description": "Intimate Images: Portrait Miniatures from Europe and America. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (March 26-October 17, 1993).",
"opening_date": "1993-03-26T04:00:00"
},
{
"id": 202388,
"title": "Disembodied: Portrait Minatures and their Contemporary Relatives",
"description": "Disembodied: Portrait Minatures and their Contemporary Relatives. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (November 10, 2013-February 16, 2014).",
"opening_date": "2013-11-10T00:00:00"
}
],
"legacy": [
{
"description": "Main European Rotation (Gallery 202), The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (January 30, 2012 - July 23, Verso on display).",
"opening_date": "2012-01-30T00:00:00"
}
]
},
"provenance": [
{
"description": "J. H. Wade (1857-1926), Cleveland, OH, gifted to the Cleveland Museum of Art",
"citations": [],
"footnotes": [],
"date": "1895-1926",
"sortorder": 1
},
{
"description": "The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH",
"citations": [],
"footnotes": null,
"date": "1926-",
"sortorder": 2
}
],
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"former_accession_numbers": [],
"did_you_know": "The back contains a lock of hair arranged as a wheat sheaf cinched with a gold ribbon, over (now cracked) white opalescent glass.",
"early_education_description": null,
"artlens_description": null,
"description": "Little biographical information is available about Nicholas Freese, who is often referred to as N Freese. He exhibited regularly at the Royal Academy from 1794 to 1814. Royal Academy records identify him as a \u201cpainter\u201d rather than a \u201cminiature painter.\u201d
The unknown gentleman in this portrait is painted bust length in three-quarter view and facing right. He wears a blue coat with gold buttons over a white waistcoat and frilled cravat. His eyes are brown, and his powdered hair is worn en queue. There is a slightly yellow pallor to his complexion, and his nose is aquiline. The background is pale gray with a hint of green, executed with crosshatching, particularly near the edges. Freese combined watercolor with gouache, as is visible in the opaque white edges of the frilled cravat. He painted the hair using a technique in which watercolor pigment was applied then lifted away with a brush, creating channels suggesting thick, soft tendrils. The sitter\u2019s bland, pleasant expression is not particularly individualized. His powdered hair and costume indicate that this miniature was executed around 1795\u20131800, when powdered hair was becoming increasingly unfashionable.",
"external_resources": {
"wikidata": [
"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q80056973"
],
"internet_archive": [
"https://archive.org/details/clevelandart-1926.229-portrait-of-a-man"
]
},
"citations": [
{
"citation": "Korkow, Cory, and Jon L. Seydl. British Portrait Miniatures: The Cleveland Museum of Art. 2013.",
"page_number": "",
"url": ""
},
{
"citation": "Korkow, Cory, and Jon L. Seydl. British Portrait Miniatures: The Cleveland Museum of Art. 2013.",
"page_number": "Cat. no. 60, pp. 236-239",
"url": ""
}
],
"url": "https://clevelandart.org/art/1926.229",
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"creditline": "Gift of J. H. Wade Jr., G. G. Wade and Mrs. E. B. Greene",
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"description": "Nicholas Freese (British, 1762\u2013after 1824)",
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"updated_at": "2026-05-29 05:48:42.224000"
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