Portrait Miniatures: Tiny Windows to the Past · Self Portrait

Self Portrait

Title: Self Portrait
Creator: Unknown Artist
Date: c. 1800-1805
Description: In this bold self-portrait, a miniature painter depicts himself with the tools of his trade, including paint brushes and an oval ivory palette with watercolor pigments (similar to those on display nearby). Seated in a colonial side chair and fashionably dressed in an embroidered blue waistcoat, he pauses from painting a miniature portrait of a young woman to meet the viewer’s gaze. Although the artist’s identity remains unknown, he is believed to have been biracial and likely worked in or around New Orleans, Louisiana, where this self-portrait was discovered.
Subject: miniatures (paintings); self-portraits
has style period: romanticism (form of expression); Romantic (modern European styles)
Medium: watercolor (paint); ivory (material)
height: 3 1/4 in. (8.3 cm)
width: 3 1/4 in. (8.3 cm)
Coverage: United States; Louisiana
Provenance: E. Grosvenor Paine, New Orleans (who discovered it in New Orleans); acquired in about 1989 by Elle Shushan, Philadelphia, PA
Credit Line: Dale T. Johnson Fund, 2014
Rights: Metropolitan Museum of Art
Identifier: 2014.512