id: 120838 accession number: 1941.562 share license status: CC0 url: https://clevelandart.org/art/1941.562 updated: 2022-09-22 09:31:08.604000 Portrait of a Man and Portrait of a Woman (pair), c. 1795. Nathaniel Plimer (British, 1757–1822). Watercolor on ivory in a period gold and hair frame; framed: 9.2 x 7.7 cm (3 5/8 x 3 1/16 in.); sight: 6.7 x 5.3 cm (2 5/8 x 2 1/16 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, The Edward B. Greene Collection 1941.562 title: Portrait of a Man and Portrait of a Woman (pair) title in original language: series: series in original language: creation date: c. 1795 creation date earliest: 1790 creation date latest: 1799 current location: creditline: The Edward B. Greene Collection copyright: --- culture: England, 18th century technique: watercolor on ivory in a period gold and hair frame department: European Painting and Sculpture collection: P - British before 1800 type: Portrait Miniature find spot: catalogue raisonne: --- CREATORS * Nathaniel Plimer (British, 1757–1822) - artist Born the sons of a clockmaker, Nathaniel Plimer and his younger brother Andrew initially trained in their father's profession, although they grew restless with this trade, and ran off to live with Gypsies for two years. By 1781, they were together in London, and determined to practice art. Both took up residence with established artists. Nathaniel worked as a servant to the enamellist, Henry Bone, whereas Andrew became the valet to the portrait and miniature painter, Richard Cosway. Cosway discovered Andrew copying one of his miniatures and introduced him to miniature painting. Andrew assimilated his master's airy execution and adapted Cosway's linear brushwork which leaves much of the bare ivory visible. He also employed Cosway's use of large, expressive eyes which made his miniatures appear soulfully elegant, earning him high praise amongst legions of admirers. A quick study, Andrew set up his own studio by 1786 and he exhibited regularly at the Royal Academy of Arts from 1786-1830. Andrew Plimer's works fall into two phases. In the first, his sitters appear more naturalistically rendered than those painted after around 1789. During the earlier period he frequently included his initials, "A.P.," on the front of the miniature, followed by a date. By contrast, he did not sign or date works in the second phase. Furthermore, in Andrew's second phase of work, he reduced his palette and perhaps due to his high output, sitters share many visual characteristics; in particular, his women have elongated necks, long noses and large appealing eyes. --- measurements: Framed: 9.2 x 7.7 cm (3 5/8 x 3 1/16 in.); Sight: 6.7 x 5.3 cm (2 5/8 x 2 1/16 in.) state of the work: edition of the work: support materials: inscriptions: --- CURRENT EXHIBITIONS 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). * Main European Rotation (Gallery 202), The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (January 30, 2012 - July 23, 2012). [Verso on display] --- PROVENANCE (Leo Schidlof (1886-1966), Paris, France, sold to Edward B. Greene) date: -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: They are both unsigned, as was typical for Plimer’s works during this period. digital description: wall description: The man'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 lid eyelashes.
The woman wears a wide, white ribbon bandeau in her powdered, curly hair, which falls to her shoulders. She has blue eyes and dark brows; a gold earring is visible in her left ear. The bust line of her white cotton gown is trimmed with many layers of ruffles, and she wears a fi chu around her neck and shoulders. The background is very pale, with ivory ground visible, but faintly light blue close to the head.
The female portrait is slightly larger than the male, and both date from c. 1795, the date at which a British man would have worn his hair powdered and his cravat tied in a bow and a British woman would have been wearing this type of ruffled muslin gown and a bandeau in her long hair. It is impossible to know for certain if these unidentified sitters were married, but the fact that they are housed in identical frames, which date from the same period as the paintings, suggests that they are a pair. Although husbands and wives often commissioned portraits in miniature simultaneously, the pairs were frequently divided over time through inheritance, loss, breakage, or independent sale. Both miniatures are housed in identical, wonderfully elaborate period gold frames with braided hairwork. The blue glass back of each has a plait of brown hair in its center. The hair incorporated into the framing of each miniature is approximately the same color, suggesting either that the couple had the same color hair or that the same hair was used in each frame. Traditionally, it was the hair of the sitter that was mounted with his or her miniature portrait. --- RELATED WORKS --- CITATIONS Cleveland Museum of Art. Portrait Miniatures ; The Edward B. Greene Collection. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1951. page number: Reproduced: p. 29, no. 32, pl. XX url: https://archive.org/details/PortraitMiniatures/page/n67 Foskett, Daphne. A Dictionary of British Miniature Painters. London: Faber and Faber, 1972. page number: p 451 url: 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. 301 url: Korkow, Cory, and Dario Robleto. Disembodied: Portrait Miniatures and Their Contemporary Relatives. 2013. page number: Mentioned: p.83 url: Korkow, Cory, and Jon L. Seydl. British Portrait Miniatures: The Cleveland Museum of Art. 2013. page number: Cat. no. 53-54, pp. 215-220 url: --- IMAGES web: https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1941.562/1941.562_web.jpg print: https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1941.562/1941.562_print.jpg full: https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1941.562/1941.562_full.tif