id: 123413 accession number: 1943.644 share license status: CC0 url: https://clevelandart.org/art/1943.644 updated: 2024-03-26 01:57:57.310000 Portrait of a Woman, called Mrs. Close, 1786. Horace Hone (British, 1756–1825). Watercolor on ivory in an ormolu frame; framed: 8.9 x 7.5 cm (3 1/2 x 2 15/16 in.); sight: 6.5 x 5.2 cm (2 9/16 x 2 1/16 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, The Edward B. Greene Collection 1943.644 title: Portrait of a Woman, called Mrs. Close title in original language: series: series in original language: creation date: 1786 creation date earliest: 1786 creation date latest: 1786 current location: creditline: The Edward B. Greene Collection copyright: --- culture: England, 18th century technique: watercolor on ivory in an ormolu frame department: European Painting and Sculpture collection: P - British before 1800 type: Portrait Miniature find spot: catalogue raisonne: --- CREATORS * Horace Hone (British, 1756–1825) - artist Horace Hone was a miniature painter, enameler, and engraver trained at the Royal Academy Schools in London and by his father, the Irish painter Nathaniel Hone (1718–1784). Horace worked in Dublin from 1782 until moving back to London around 1804, after the union of England and Ireland brought about the emigration of much of his clientele. He was appointed miniature painter to the Prince of Wales (the future king George IV) in 1795 and painted elite members of society, including the politician Charles James Fox and the theater doyenne Sarah Siddons. Hone was a friend of the famous diarist Joseph Farington, who wrote in 1795 of Hone’s receiving 12 guineas for painting a portrait for which the sitter’s wife was going to spend £300 on the setting. This payment suggests that in the 1790s, when his practice was thriving, Hone’s rates were similar to those charged by his successful contemporaries George Engleheart (1752–
1829) and Richard Cosway (1742–1821).3 By the 1810s, however, Hone was suffering from mental illness, his practice was in decline, and he was sufficiently financially desperate to appeal to the Royal Academy for charity on several occasions between 1814 and 1821. Hone was appointed an associate member of the Royal Academy in 1779 and exhibited at twenty-nine of its annual exhibitions between 1772 and 1822. The quality of his miniatures varies widely, but his best works are vibrantly colored and minutely worked, suggesting psychological depth and intimacy without being cloying. His work in enamel is rare but often regarded as superior to his portraits in watercolor on ivory. Indeed, the enamels less often fell victim to the redundancy and haste of execution evidenced in many of the ivories. Hone is known especially for his elegant portraits of women, who were frequently placed against a golden olive brown background and exhibit the artist’s distinctive dark eyes, rosy cheeks, and painting of individual eyelashes. The Cleveland Museum of Art possesses two portraits on ivory by Hone, each dating from the mid-1780s, when he was a young artist enjoying success in Dublin. Both works depict fashionably dressed women wearing large portrait miniatures. --- measurements: Framed: 8.9 x 7.5 cm (3 1/2 x 2 15/16 in.); Sight: 6.5 x 5.2 cm (2 9/16 x 2 1/16 in.) state of the work: edition of the work: support materials: inscriptions: inscription: signed lower right: HH / 1786 [HH in monogram] translation: remark: --- 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, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (November 10, 2013-February 16, 2014). --- LEGACY EXHIBITIONS --- PROVENANCE (Leo Schidlof (1886-1966), Paris, France, sold to Edward B. Greene). date: By 1929 footnotes: citations: Edward B. Greene (1878-1957), Cleveland, OH, gifted to the Cleveland Museum of Art date: 1929-1943 footnotes: citations: The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH date: 1943- footnotes: citations: --- fun fact: digital description: wall description: --- 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. 28, no. 19, pl. XIX 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. 292 url: Korkow, Cory, and Dario Robleto. Disembodied: Portrait Miniatures and Their Contemporary Relatives. 2013. page number: Mentioned: p.84 url: Korkow, Cory, and Jon L. Seydl. British Portrait Miniatures: The Cleveland Museum of Art. 2013. page number: Cat. no. 52, pp. 212-214 url: --- IMAGES web: https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1943.644/1943.644_web.jpg print: https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1943.644/1943.644_print.jpg full: https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1943.644/1943.644_full.tif