{
"data": {
"id": 120839,
"accession_number": "1941.562.1",
"share_license_status": "CC0",
"tombstone": "Portrait of a Man, c. 1795. Nathaniel Plimer (British, 1757\u20131822). 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, 1941.562.1",
"current_location": "203B British Painting and Decorative Arts",
"title": "Portrait of a Man",
"creation_date": "c. 1795",
"creation_date_earliest": 1790,
"creation_date_latest": 1799,
"artists_tags": [
"male"
],
"culture": [
"England, 18th century"
],
"technique": "watercolor on ivory in a period gold and hair frame",
"support_materials": [],
"department": "European Painting and Sculpture",
"collection": "P - British before 1800",
"type": "Portrait Miniature",
"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.)",
"dimensions": {
"framed": {
"height": 0.092,
"width": 0.077
},
"sight": {
"height": 0.067,
"width": 0.053
}
},
"state_of_the_work": null,
"edition_of_the_work": null,
"copyright": null,
"inscriptions": [],
"exhibitions": {
"current": [
{
"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 Gallery Rotation (Gallery 202), The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (January 5, 2009 - April 6, 2009).",
"opening_date": "2009-01-05T00:00:00"
},
{
"description": "Main European Rotation (Gallery 202), The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (January 30, 2012 - July 23, 2012). [Verso on display]",
"opening_date": "2012-01-30T00:00:00"
}
]
},
"provenance": [
{
"description": "(Leo Schidlof (1886-1966), Paris, France, sold to Edward B. Greene)",
"citations": [],
"footnotes": [],
"date": "-1930",
"sortorder": null
},
{
"description": "Edward B. Greene (1878-1957), Cleveland, OH, gifted to the Cleveland Museum of Art",
"citations": [],
"footnotes": null,
"date": "1930-1941",
"sortorder": 2
},
{
"description": "The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH",
"citations": [],
"footnotes": null,
"date": "1941-",
"sortorder": 3
}
],
"find_spot": null,
"related_works": [],
"former_accession_numbers": [
"1941.562"
],
"did_you_know": "This piece has a companion in the collection, 1941.562.2, although their relationship is unknown.",
"description": "The sitter'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\u2019s 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 eyelashes. This portrait is probably the pendant to 1941.562.2. 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. 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, 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. They are both unsigned, as was typical for Plimer\u2019s works during this period.",
"external_resources": {
"wikidata": [
"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q80016497"
],
"internet_archive": [
"https://archive.org/details/clevelandart-1941.562.1-portrait-of-a-man"
]
},
"citations": [
{
"citation": "Cleveland Museum of Art, and Edward Belden Greene. Portrait Miniatures ; The Edward B. Greene Collection. 1951.",
"page_number": "p. 29, no. 32, pl. XX",
"url": ""
},
{
"citation": "Foskett, Daphne. A Dictionary of British Miniature Painters. London: Faber and Faber, 1972.",
"page_number": "p 451",
"url": ""
},
{
"citation": "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": ""
},
{
"citation": "Korkow, Cory, and Dario Robleto. Disembodied: Portrait Miniatures and Their Contemporary Relatives. 2013.",
"page_number": "Referenced: p.83",
"url": null
},
{
"citation": "Korkow, Cory, and Jon L. Seydl. British Portrait Miniatures: The Cleveland Museum of Art. 2013.",
"page_number": "Cat. no. 53, pp. 215-217",
"url": ""
},
{
"citation": "Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland Art: The Cleveland Museum of Art Members Magazine. Vol. 53 no. 06, November/December 2013",
"page_number": "Mentioned and reproduced: p. 6-7",
"url": "https://archive.org/details/CMAMM2013-06/page/6/"
}
],
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"creditline": "The Edward B. Greene Collection",
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"athena_id": 120839,
"creators": [
{
"id": 3721,
"description": "Nathaniel Plimer (British, 1757\u20131822)",
"extent": null,
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"role": "artist",
"biography": "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. \r\n\r\nCosway 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. \r\n\r\nAndrew 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.",
"name_in_original_language": null,
"birth_year": "1757",
"death_year": "1822",
"use_in_caption": true,
"include_extent": false,
"weight": 1
}
],
"legal_status": "accessioned",
"accession_date": "1941-12-05T00:00:00",
"sortable_date": 1790,
"date_added_to_oa": null,
"date_text": "c. 1795",
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"cover_accession_number": "1941.562",
"is_nazi_era_provenance": false,
"impression": null,
"alternate_titles": [
"Man in Pale Green Coat"
],
"is_highlight": false,
"updated_at": "2026-03-27 00:09:41.201000"
}
}