Existing comment:
Lydia Henchman Hancock, 1714–1777
Born Boston, Massachusetts
Thomas Hancock, 1703–1764
Born Lexington, Massachusetts
John Singleton Copley painted these pillars of Boston society, aunt and uncle to the patriot John Hancock, near the beginning of his career. Copley trained himself in making paintings "in littel," as oil-on-copper miniatures were then known; the more fashionable European technique of using watercolor on ivory was not yet well established in the colonies. Copley painted Thomas Hancock first, around 1758. After his death, Hancock's widow had her portrait done in miniature by Copley. The artist then set his original miniature into a larger, oval piece of copper to match her portrait so that they could be displayed as framed pendants.
John Singleton Copley, 1766
The word "miniature" was originally associated with the creation of small images and portraits. Tiny, often expensive likenesses -- require a highly trained artist with good eyesight and a steady hand -- were also made as mementos, love tokens, or memorials that could be kept close to the body. Their carefully worked metal housings were often bracelets, pendants, or brooches with glass coverings to protect the surface of the paintings. By the eighteenth century, when John Singleton Copley was creating small oil-on-copper portraits, that older technique was giving way to the transparent, fragile medium of watercolor or gouache on a thin sheet of ivory. In the nineteenth century, ivory miniatures could be slightly larger and were sometimes housed on rectangular leather cases with hinged covers.
In the 1840s, with the rise of photography, small daguerreotypes and ambrotypes were housed in similar cases, and artists often moved from one medium to another. By the 1860s, miniatures became rarer, as cheaper photographs provided portable images of loved ones and public figures. Around 1900, miniature painting experienced a revival, and women artists produced some of the most dramatic examples of the art.
Miniatures are light-sensitive and fragile, and can suffer over time. We are indebted to the Smithsonian Women's Committee for three grants made over the last ten years that funded the conservation and rehousing of the majority of the National Portrait Gallery's collection of portrait miniatures. We are pleased to share a selection of these engaging likenesses in this installation. |