{
"data": {
"id": 136837,
"accession_number": "1961.328",
"share_license_status": "CC0",
"tombstone": "Eye, 1900s. America. Watercolor on ivory set in a ring with split pearl border; unframed: 1 cm (3/8 in.); diameter of frame: 1.5 cm (9/16 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Gift of Mr. and Mrs. John W. Starr, 1961.328",
"current_location": null,
"title": "Eye",
"creation_date": "1900s",
"creation_date_earliest": 1900,
"creation_date_latest": 1961,
"artists_tags": [],
"culture": [
"America"
],
"technique": "watercolor on ivory set in a ring with split pearl border",
"support_materials": [],
"department": "American Painting and Sculpture",
"collection": "American - Painting",
"type": "Portrait Miniature",
"measurements": "Unframed: 1 cm (3/8 in.); Diameter of frame: 1.5 cm (9/16 in.)",
"dimensions": {
"unframed": {
"height": 0.01
},
"diameter of frame": {
"height": 0.015
}
},
"state_of_the_work": null,
"edition_of_the_work": null,
"copyright": null,
"inscriptions": [],
"exhibitions": {
"current": [
{
"id": 302276,
"title": "Year in Review - 1962",
"description": "Year in Review - 1962. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (October 24-November 25, 1962).",
"opening_date": "1962-10-24T04:00:00"
},
{
"id": 311503,
"title": "Intimate Images: Portrait Miniatures from Europe and America",
"description": "Intimate Images: Portrait Miniatures from Europe and America. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (March 26-October 17, 1993).",
"opening_date": "1993-03-26T04:00:00"
},
{
"id": 223530,
"title": "Hitchcock and Art: Fatal Coincidences",
"description": "Hitchcock and Art: Fatal Coincidences. Montr\u00e9al Museum of Fine Arts, Montreal, Quebec, Canada (organizer) (November 16, 2000-March 18, 2001); Centre national d'art et de culture Georges Pompidou, Paris cedex O4, France (June 6-September 24, 2001).",
"opening_date": "2000-11-16T00:00:00"
},
{
"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": []
},
"provenance": [
{
"description": "Mr. and Mrs. John W. Starr, Kansas City, MO, gifted to the Cleveland Museum of Art",
"citations": [],
"footnotes": [],
"date": "1951-1961",
"sortorder": null
},
{
"description": "The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH",
"citations": [],
"footnotes": null,
"date": "1961-",
"sortorder": 2
}
],
"find_spot": null,
"related_works": [],
"former_accession_numbers": [],
"did_you_know": null,
"description": "Eye miniatures were popular in Europe between 1790 and 1830. Only in a few extraordinary cases do we know whose eyes were painted and their limited scope makes it almost impossible to identify the artist, though we know that many famous miniaturists painted eye portraits including John Smart, Richard Cosway, and George Engleheart. Because the artist and the sitter could be known only to the person who commissioned or received the object, these eyes are distinguished from miniatures and portraits for their private significance and insurmountable mystery. There are six eye miniatures in the Cleveland Museum of Art's collection, but this is the only ring. It was probably worn by a woman, but we do not know if the eye belonged to a male or female. Eye miniatures are often set in highly elaborate jeweled frames that balance their simplicity and emphasize their preciousness. The pearls, with a spherical luster that recalls tears, suggest that this was a mourning ring\u2014expressing grief for a lost loved one. Pearls were not cultured until the 1900s, and were highly valued during the 1800s when this was probably painted, making the ring both sentimental and valuable to its owner. In 2000 three of the CMA's eye miniatures appeared in an exhibition on Alfred Hitchcock and art, highlighting their eerie fascination for modern viewers and their relationship to Surrealism and issues of surveillance.",
"external_resources": {
"wikidata": [
"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q80031039"
],
"internet_archive": [
"https://archive.org/details/clevelandart-1961.328-eye"
]
},
"citations": [
{
"citation": "Pai\u0308ni, Dominique, and Guy Cogeval. Hitchcock and Art: Fatal Coincidences. Montreal: The Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, 2000.",
"page_number": "repr. p. 212 (right)",
"url": null
}
],
"url": "https://clevelandart.org/art/1961.328",
"images": {
"annotation": null,
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"width": "690",
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"print": {
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"alternate_images": [
{
"date_created": "2008-09-26T19:55:38",
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],
"creditline": "Gift of Mr. and Mrs. John W. Starr",
"image_credit": null,
"sketchfab_id": null,
"sketchfab_url": null,
"gallery_donor_text": null,
"athena_id": 136837,
"creators": [],
"legal_status": "accessioned",
"accession_date": "1961-12-02T00:00:00",
"sortable_date": 1900,
"date_added_to_oa": null,
"date_text": "1900s",
"collapse_artists": false,
"on_loan": false,
"recently_acquired": false,
"record_type": "object",
"conservation_statement": null,
"has_conservation_images": false,
"cover_accession_number": null,
"is_nazi_era_provenance": false,
"impression": null,
"alternate_titles": [],
"is_highlight": false,
"updated_at": "2026-03-27 00:00:52.010000"
}
}