id: 120831 accession number: 1941.556 share license status: CC0 url: https://clevelandart.org/art/1941.556 updated: 2023-03-07 15:13:45.284000 Portrait of a Man, c. 1800. George Engleheart (British, 1752–1829). Watercolor on ivory, in a later gold, enamel, and diamond frame; framed: 8.7 x 7.4 cm (3 7/16 x 2 15/16 in.); unframed: 7.7 x 6.2 cm (3 1/16 x 2 7/16 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, The Edward B. Greene Collection 1941.556 title: Portrait of a Man title in original language: series: series in original language: creation date: c. 1800 creation date earliest: 1795 creation date latest: 1805 current location: creditline: The Edward B. Greene Collection copyright: --- culture: England, 18th century technique: watercolor on ivory, in a later gold, enamel, and diamond frame department: Modern European Painting and Sculpture collection: Mod Euro - Painting 1800-1960 type: Portrait Miniature find spot: catalogue raisonne: --- CREATORS * George Engleheart (British, 1752–1829) - artist George Engleheart was born in Kew to a German plaster modeler. Among his teachers were George Barret (1728/32–
1784) and Joshua Reynolds (1723–1792), whose work Engleheart copied in miniature. One of Richard Cosway’s (1742–1821) greatest rivals and stylistically the closest to his work, Engleheart worked primarily in London until retiring in 1813, after which date he painted few miniatures. Engleheart’s miniatures have a more linear, labored manner than those of Cosway, whose painterly works were often left unfinished near the edges. Like Cosway, Engleheart often placed
his figures against a background of sky. But the firm draftsmanship (especially in the hair), heavy brows, and the use of grays and blacks for shadows are distinctive to Engleheart, who was celebrated for his ability to capture a sitter’s likeness closely. Engleheart’s productivity is documented by the fee book he kept between 1775 and 1813, which records an astounding total of 4,853 miniatures. He exhibited at the Royal Academy between 1773 and 1812, and was miniature painter to King George III from 1789. There are three fine Engleheart miniatures in the collection of the Cleveland Museum of Art, all portraits of gentlemen dating near the turn of the century. --- measurements: Framed: 8.7 x 7.4 cm (3 7/16 x 2 15/16 in.); Unframed: 7.7 x 6.2 cm (3 1/16 x 2 7/16 in.) state of the work: edition of the work: support materials: inscriptions: --- CURRENT EXHIBITIONS title: Four Centuries of Miniature Painting opening date: 1950-01-18T05:00:00 Four Centuries of Miniature Painting. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY (organizer) (January 18-March 19, 1950). title: Intimate Images: Portrait Miniatures from Europe and America opening date: 1993-03-26T04:00:00 Intimate Images: Portrait Miniatures from Europe and America. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (March 26-October 17, 1993). title: Disembodied: Portrait Minatures and their Contemporary Relatives opening date: 2013-11-10T00:00:00 Disembodied: Portrait Minatures and their Contemporary Relatives. The Cleveland Museum of Art (organizer) (November 10, 2013-February 16, 2014). --- LEGACY EXHIBITIONS * Main Gallery Rotation (Gallery 202) The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (January 5, 2009 - April 6, 2009). --- PROVENANCE Benjamin Nathan, London, England date: Before 1930 footnotes: citations: (Leo Schidlof (1886-1966), Paris, France) date: By 1930 footnotes: citations: Edward B. Greene (1878-1957), Cleveland, OH, gifted to the Cleveland Museum of Art date: 1930-1941 footnotes: citations: The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH date: 1941- footnotes: citations: --- fun fact: Braided brown hair is glazed on the back of this miniature. digital description: wall description: This work dates to around 1800, when George Engleheart was in the mature stage of his career. The sitter wears a blue coat with brass buttons over a yellow waistcoat and high white collar with ruffles. The initials W.A. on the back of the case probably identify the sitter, but Engleheart’s fee book records only his sitter’s surname in most instances, so it is impossible to determine if this portrait is among those numerous sitters with an A surname. The meticulous construction of the elaborate case and the nature of its components—gold, enamel, and diamonds—indicates that it is probably original.
The gold initials on the bordered, blue enamel back are encircled with braided brown hair. The twenty-four brilliant-cut diamonds are genuine, though paste diamonds were becoming more widely available during this period. When this work entered Cleveland’s collection in the 1940s, the cost of reproducing the frame was noted in curatorial records to be 20,000 to 25,000 francs, according to the dealer Leo Schidlof. It is the only miniature from the Greene collection whose setting was evaluated in such a way. --- RELATED WORKS --- CITATIONS Cleveland Museum of Art. Portrait Miniatures; The Edward B. Greene Collection. Cleveland: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1951. page number: Mentioned: p. 27, no. 12; reproduced: pl. XVIII url: https://archive.org/details/PortraitMiniatures/page/n65 Cleveland Museum of Art, and Alan Chong. European & American Painting in the Cleveland Museum of Art: A Summary Catalogue. Cleveland, Ohio: Cleveland Museum of Art, 1993. page number: p. 286 url: Korkow, Cory, and Dario Robleto. Disembodied: Portrait Miniatures and Their Contemporary Relatives. 2013. page number: Mentioned: p.86 url: Korkow, Cory, and Jon L. Seydl. British Portrait Miniatures: The Cleveland Museum of Art. 2013. page number: Cat. no. 62, pp. 242-243 url: --- IMAGES web: https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1941.556/1941.556_web.jpg print: https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1941.556/1941.556_print.jpg full: https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1941.556/1941.556_full.tif