id: 120831
accession number: 1941.556
share license status: CC0
url: https://clevelandart.org/art/1941.556
updated: 2023-08-23 20:06:16.864000
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:
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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:
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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.
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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:
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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, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (November 10, 2013-February 16, 2014).
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LEGACY EXHIBITIONS
* Main Gallery Rotation (Gallery 202) The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (January 5, 2009 - April 6, 2009).
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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:
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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.
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RELATED WORKS
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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:
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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