Miniature Portrait of Fannie Hipkins Bernard (Mrs. William Bernard)(1775-1801)
Date1800-1801 (possibly)
MediumWatercolor on ivory in copper alloy case with glass cover
DimensionsEncased: 2 5/16 x 1 3/4in.
Credit LineMuseum Purchase
Object number2008-128
DescriptionA bust-length, miniature, oval-format portrait of a young woman. She wears much finery, including a tall, white, curling feather that rises vertically over her head, being anchored by a headband of white ribbons and pearls. At center front, the headband also sports a rose bloom. She wears drop pearl earrings and has dark brown hair and dark blue eyes. Her blue dress has a low neckline that is filled with four tiers of white lace ruffles. A miniature portrait of a woman is suspended from a double strand choker of pearls round her neck, and a miniature portrait of a man is pinned to her bodice. A long chain of gold links appears to pass through the clasp, or hanging loop, of the man's miniature, but the chain loops down on either side of the miniature without supporting it. The image is enclosed in a simple copper alloy case having a hanging ring attached to the back.
Label TextOnly occasionally were the subjects of miniature portraits shown wearing miniatures, which is surprising given the fashionableness of these combination portraits-costume accessories and the fact that their inclusion effectively promoted miniaturists' skills and services. This exuberantly attired young woman wears two miniatures, one of a woman at her throat and one of a man threaded onto a long chain and pinned to her bodice.
The sitter has long been identified as Fannie Hipkins Bernard, the only child of Port Royal, Virginia, merchant, John Hipkins (1740-1804; n. 1) and his wife, Elizabeth Pratt (1755-1827). If data from a family Bible are correct, on 3 September 1789 (before her fourteenth birthday), Fannie wed William Bernard (1767-1841; n. 2). In 1790, John Hipkins bought and gave the newlyweds Belle Grove, an estate on the north side of the Rappanhannock River opposite Port Royal.
Fannie was a first cousin of Lucy Hipkins Brockenbrough (d. 1816), who became the second wife of artist Charles Peale Polk. Yet based on style and technique, it is believed that some other, still unidentified hand was responsible for this unusual miniature portrait, which is stylistically related to several others of Virginia sitters.
InscribedNo original inscriptions were found.
Painted on a white ground coat covering a small spot on the back of the case is "G80.580" (an earlier acc. no.).
MarkingsA typed label on the back of the case reads: "Fannie (1775-1801)/dau. John & Elisabe[t]/h Pratt Hipkins & 1s/t wife Wm. Bernard".
ProvenanceRecords provided by a former owner, the Association for the Preservation of Virginia Antiquities (now, Preservation Virginia), summarize that organization's belief that the miniature descended from the subject "to her eldest granddaughter and namesake, Fanny Bernard Lightfoot (1805-1887), wife of Robert G. Robb, who gave it to her eldest granddaughter and namesake, Fannie B. Robb (1867-1950), who, some years before her death, gave it to her oldest niece and namesake, France[s] Bernard Robb Upton (Patton)."
In 1973, James Patton and his wife, Frances Bernard Robb Upton Patton, conveyed the contents of their house, "Gaymont," to the APVA while retaining life estate. Mrs. Patton died in the 1980s, Mr. Patton in November 2007, at which latter point custody passed to the APVA. (The original house called "Gaymont" burned about 1950, but the house's contents were saved, and the Pattons rebuilt on the site). In 2008, the APVA sold the house and its (now deaccessioned) contents to a private individual. That private individual gave the miniature to another private individual, who was CWF's source.
APVA provenance records include the interesting detail that "for many years . . . [the miniature] hung around and from one of the Argand lamps on the [Gaymont] parlour mantel."
ca. 1795
Probably 1838-1842
1606-1615 (possibly)
Probably 1764-1768
