Miniature Portrait of William Herrick Avery (1820-1887)

Dateca. 1840

Artist James Sanford Ellsworth (1803-1875)

OriginAmerica, Massachusetts, Montgomery (probably)

MediumWatercolor on wove paper

DimensionsTBD [3 1/4" X 2 9/16" (8.3 cm. x 6.5 cm.) 3 1/2" x 2 3/4" framed]

Credit LineMuseum Purchase

Object number1963.300.4

DescriptionA half-length miniature portrait of a young man shown in profile facing left, his near hand drawn up to waist level and holding a book in front of him. He wears a black coat and white shirt with a downturned collar. Gray "clouds" outline his head and create a contrast between his head and the background; other background "clouds," more vaguely defined, fill the background at and below waist level. The subject has blue eyes, and his brown hair is combed over the top of his head toward the viewer, terminating in a bluntly-chopped off lock at ear level. He sports chin whiskers and sideburns.

The 3/16-inch engraved brass frame is a twentieth-century replacement.
Label TextJames Sanford Ellsworth is best known for his numerous profiles, but he also rendered several full-face miniatures and a few full-scale portraits in oil on canvas. His style is an interesting blend of the real and the fanciful: his frank, representational, presumably realistic depictions of individualized subjects are, at the same time, characterized by distinctive conventions --- gray-tinted, scallop-edged, cloudlike aureoles that frame the heads of his sitters; related, cloudlike bases on which his half-length figures seem to be borne aloft; and curious, stylized upholstered chairs upon which more than half of his known subjects are enthroned.

Ellsworth presumably painted William Herrick Avery at the same time he painted the young man's aunt and uncle, Louisa and William Herrick, all of whom were residents of Montgomery, Massachusetts.
InscribedHand-written in black watercolor in block-style lettering in the lower margin below the sitter's forearm is: "Ell[remainder cut off]."
MarkingsNo watermark found.
ProvenanceFrom a descendant of the subject, Mrs. Florence Emery of Westfield, Massachusetts; to Robert Carlen of Philadelphia, who was CWF's vendor.