HEIRLOOMS IN MINIATURES FIFTH EDITION Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2014 http://archive.org/details/heirloonnsinminiaOOwhar HEIRLOOMS IN MINIATURES ANNE HOLLINGSWORTH WHARTON WITH A CHAPTER ON MINIATURE PAINTING BY EMILY DRAYTON TAYLOR WITH NUMEROUS REPRODUCTIONS OF THE BEST EXAMPLES OF COLONIAL, REVOLUTIONARY, AND MODERN MINIA- TURE PAINTERS PHILADELPHIA & LONDON J. B. LIPPINCOTT COMPANY 1902 BY Copyright, 1897 by J. B. Lippincott Company TO HELEN BELL WHOSE FRIENDSHIP WAS JOY, WHOSE MEMORY IS AN INSPIRATION PREFACE To gather together some interesting and representative American miniatures, and to accompany them with a brief record of the individuals whom they represent, was the first intention of the author of this volume. In the course of her researches, and while in corre- spondence with families owning precious heir- looms in miniatures, so much of interest was brought to light with regard to early American painters, that this book has grown into a chronicle of the sayings and doings of the artists, as well as of those whom they por- trayed. For this divergence from her original design the writer feels that she need make no apology, in view of the interest that belongs to the reminiscences and anecdotes which have thus been brought to light, our early artists being men of attractive personality, whose histories are inseparably connected with their country's progress in the arts and sciences, as well as with her Colonial and her Revolu- tionary life. vii • PREFACE Without in any sense attempting to supply the much needed history of American art for which the writer has in vain sought the libra- ries of Boston, New York, and Philadelphia, she ventures to believe that she here presents many facts with regard to the art life of the country which are unknown to the general reader, in connection with much family data, historical and reminiscent. The author desires to express her thanks to those who have confided to her care the originals of miniatures which are here repro- duced, and takes pleasure in making her acknowledgments for the use of diaries, letters, and family data to Miss Elizabeth Hesselius Murray, of West River, Maryland ; to General Charles W. Darling, of Utica, New York ; to Mr. Jonathan Trumbull, of Norwich, Connecticut, and to Miss Blanche Sully, Miss Anna and Miss Mary Peale, Mrs. Henry S. Huidekoper, Miss Hannah M. Milligan, Dr. Charles E. Cadwalader, the Honorable Craig Biddle, Mr. James S. Biddle, Mr. Horace W. Sellers, Dr. Albert Peale, and Mr. Walter P. Brown, of Philadelphia. For a valuable chapter upon Miniature Painting as an Art she is indebted to her friend Mrs. J. Madison Taylor, of Philadel- viii PREFACE phia, some of whose beautiful miniatures adorn the pages of this volume. While much material has been drawn from original sources, in the form of diaries, let- ters, and recollections, the following author- ities have been consulted in the preparation of this book: Cunningham's Lives of the Painters;'* History of the Rise and Progress of the Arts of Design in the United States," by William Dunlap ; ''Book of the Artists," by Henry T. Tuckerman ; '* Art and Artists of Connecticut," by H. W. French; ''History of the Centennial of the Inauguration of Wash- ington," by Clarence W. Bowen; "Life Por- traits of George Washington and Andrew Jackson," by Charles Henry Hart; " Old Kent, Maryland;" " Provincial Councillors of Penn- sylvania," by Charles P. Keith; "Autobiog- raphy of Colonel John Trumbull;" "Life of Gilbert Stuart," and " Reminiscences of New- port," by George C. Mason; "The Domestic and Artistic Life of John Singleton Copley," by Martha Babcock Amory, and "The Life of J. S. Copley," by Augustus Thorndyke Perkins. A. H. W. Philadelphia, November, 1897. ix CONTENTS CHAPTER I Page Colonial Art n CHAPTER II Two Pioneers in American Art . . 38 CHAPTER III Some Artists of the Revolution . . 77 CHAPTER IV End-of-the-Century Artists . • . . 119 CHAPTER V Malbone and Fraser 147 CHAPTER VI The Beauty of Our Grandmothers . 172 CHAPTER VII Some Later Limners 197 CHAPTER Vni. BY EMILY DRAYTON TAYLOR Miniature Painting as an Art . . . 227 xi ILLUSTRATIONS Page MRS. ALEXANDER BLEECKER, of New York. Miniature by Edward Greene Malbone, painted about 1803, owned by Mr. Charles M. Lea, of Philadelphia Frontispiece ARCHIBALD McCALL. Miniature owned by Richard McCall, of Philadelphia, great-grandson 13 MARY McCALL (Mrs. William Plumsted). Miniature owned by Mrs. Edward Hoffman, of Philadelphia, great-great-niece. Dark eyes and hair and soft blue gown with touches of yellow 13 MRS. PHILIP ROGERS (Rebecca Young Woodward). Minia- ture by C. W. Peale, owned by a descendant, Mrs. Ridgeley, of Baltimore 19 MISS PEGGY CHAMPLIN (Mrs. Benjamin Mason, of New- port, Rhode Island). Miniature owned by Mrs. George C. Mason, of Philadelphia 26 MRS. JACOB LEISLER (Elsje Tymans, of New York). Minia- ture owned by great-great-great-great-great-grandson, Mr. A. .Cortland Van Rensselaer, of New York. Blue gown, white neckerchief edged with lace, a muslin and lace cap on the head, tied under the chin with red ribbons, and a breast-knot of red ribbon 26 MRS. SAMUEL EMLEN (Susan Dillwyn). Miniature owned by Mrs. G. M. Howland, of Wilmington, Delaware 31 GENERAL JOHN CADWALADER 32 MRS. JOHN CADWALADER (Elizabeth Lloyd). Both minia- tures, attributed to C. W. Peale, are owned by Mr. George McCall, of Philadelphia, great-grandson 32 CADWALADER MORRIS. Miniature, probably by C. W. Peale, owned by a descendant, Miss Hannah Morris Milligan, of Philadelphia 35 MRS. SAMUEL MORRIS (Hannah Cadwalader). Miniature, probably by C. W. Peale, owned by the same. Plain Friends' dress, delicate complexion and fine coloring; the back- ground of gray-green 35 xiii ILLUSTRATIONS Page MRS. CADWALADER MORRIS (Anne Strettell, of Philadel- phia) 35 AMOS STRETTELL. Both these miniatures were painted in England, and are owned by Miss Hannah Morris Milligan, of Philadelphia 35 JANE GREY WALL (Mrs. Thomas Shore, of Virginia). Min- iature owned by Mrs. Edward Shippen, of Baltimore .... 36 JUDGE AND MRS. THOMAS HOPKINSON, of Philadelphia. Miniatures in possession of great-granddaughters, the Misses Coale, of Baltimore 42 MRS. HENRY PRATT (Rebecca Claypoole). Miniature painted prior to 1760, small, set in a brooch. Crimson gown, white flowers in the hair, lace and pearls in the corsage, wrap edged with fur. Original owned by great-great-grand- daughter, Miss Mary R, Croes, of Yonkers, New York .... 42 THE RIGHT REVEREND WILLIAM WHITE, of Philadel- phia. Miniature by Charles Willson Peale, painted prior to 1770, owned by grandson, Mr. Thomas Harrison White, of Philadelphia. Powdered wig, bright blue coat, cherry- colored collar, and pale yellow waistcoat 48 GEORGE BRIDGES (LORD RODNEY). Miniature by John Singleton Copley, painted in England, and now owned by Mr. Charles Henry Hart, of Philadelphia 48 MRS. JOHN CRAIG (Margaret M. Craig). Miniature, probably painted abroad, owned by grandson, Hon. Craig Biddle, of Philadelphia. Full white muslin kerchief, hair curled and powdered, with blue ribbon tied among the luxuriant curls . 75 H. R. Miniature of a French Gentleman by Jean Baptiste Isabey, owned by the Misses Cushman, of Philadelphia ... 76 MRS. JAMES MONTGOMERY (Hester Griffitts). Miniature painted in 1777 by C. W. Peale, owned by Mrs. Wharton Griffitts, of Philadelphia. Hair powdered, blue corsage trimmed with pink, and white kerchief 83 MRS. CHARLES WILLSON PEALE (Rachel Brewer, of An- napolis). Miniature by C. W. Peale 83 MAJOR JONATHAN SELLMAN, of Maryland. Miniature by C. W. Peale, in possession of Mrs. M. D. Iglehart, of David- sonville, Ann& Arundel County, Maryland 90 COLONEL JOHN NIXON. Miniature by C. W. Peale, owned by Mrs. Cooper Smith, of Philadelphia 90 COLONEL JOHN LAURENS, of South Carolina. Miniature by C. W. Peale, belongs to Henry R. Laurens, Esq., of Charles- ton, South Carolina 90 xiv ILLUSTRATIONS Page COLEMAN SELLERS, of Philadelphia loo MRS. COLEMAN SELLERS (Sophonisba Peale). Cabinet size loo FAITH ROBINSON (afterwards Mrs. Jonathan Trumbull), of Connecticut. Miniature in possession of descendants living in Pomfret, Connecticut 102 FAITH TRUMBULL (Mrs. Daniel Wadsworth), of Hartford. Miniature by John Trumbull, in Yale College collection ... 102 GENERAL NATHANAEL GREENE, 1792. Miniature by John Trumbull, in Yale College Collection 113 MRS. JOHN TRUMBULL, wife of Colonel John Trumbull, the artist. Miniature by Elkanah Tisdale, owned by Mr. Jona- than Trumbull, of Norwich, Connecticut. Brown hair, delicate coloring, white cap with pale blue ribbons, black gown 115 JOSEPH ANTHONY, JUNIOR. Miniature attributed to his cousin, Gilbert Stuart, owned by great-granddaughter, Miss Mary B. Smith, of Philadelphia. Brown hair, florid com- plexion, blue velvet coat, white stock M4 CHRISTOPHER GREENUP, of Kentucky. Miniature painted by James Peale in 1797, owned by great-granddaughter, Miss Fanny Hagnor, of Annapolis, Maryland 127 TENCH FRANCIS. Miniature by James Peale, signed "J. P., 1798," in possession of Mrs. Howard Gardiner, of Philadel- phia. Hair powdered, brown coat, with white vest and stock, with red ribbon tied around stock ; background light . 127 REVEREND JOHN BRECKINRIDGE. Miniature by John Sartain, painted in Philadelphia in 1835, owned by Emily Sartain. Dark hair and black coat ; background dull red . . 129 JAMES MONROE. Miniature painted by Sene in Paris in 1794, owned by Mrs. Gouverneur, of Washington, D. C. Powdered hair, blue coat trimmed with red, delicate lace ruffles, and .gray-green background 129 JAMES MACKUBIN, of Maryland. Miniature painted by James Peale in 1798, owned by the Misses Walton, of An- napolis, Maryland, great-great-granddaughters 131 COLONEL TOBIAS LEAR. Original in possession of Mrs. Wilson Eyre, granddaughter. Miniature two and a half inches in length, surrounded by a double row of pearls ... 131 MRS. ALEXANDER MACOMB (Catharine Navarre), of New York. Miniature by John Ramage, owned by Mrs. Daniel L. Trumbull, of Norwich, Connecticut, granddaughter. Hair rolled high and powdered ; gown, peach-colored brocade with white lace upon the corsage , 134 XV ILLUSTRATIONS Page GENERAL JOHN JEREMIAH VAN RENSSELAER, of New York. Miniature by John Ramage, owned by descendant, Dr. John Jeremiah Van Rensselaer, of Brighton, Staten Island. Uniform, scarlet coat of corps of Albany Burgesses, of which General Van Rensselaer was Colonel 134 DR. ARCHIBALD BRUCE, of New York. Original by Saint Memin, owned by Mr. A. Cortland Van Rensselaer, of New York X39 CHRISTOPHER GRANT CHAMPLIN, of Newport, Rhode Island. Original by Saint Memin, owned by Mrs. George C. Mason 139 ELEANOR CLIFTON. Original owned by Mr. George V^. Wharton, of Philadelphia 139 MRS. DAVID HAYFIELD CONYNGHAM (Mary West). Min- iature by Robert Fulton, owned by Mrs. William Bacon Stevens, granddaughter. Small miniature set in a ring. Painted with the lady's own hair ground fine and applied with a brush 141 MRS. JOHN FISHBOURNE MIFFLIN (Clementina Ross). Original enamel by William Birch, owned by Mrs. Charles S. Bradford, of Philadelphia. Fair complexion, blonde hair, white gown with pale pink ribbons ; background gray, with light clouds 141 JAMES H. HEYWARD, of Charleston, South Carolina. Min- iature fine in color and drawing 150 MRS. JAMES H. HEYWARD (Decima Cecilia Shubrick). Dark eyes and hair, bridal veil with tiara of pearls in the hair. Both of these miniatures, by Edward G. Malbone, are owned by Mrs. Winfield J. Taylor, of Baltimore 150 MRS. PAUL TRAPIER (Sarah Alicia Shubrick). Miniature by Edward Greene Malbone, owned by grandson, Mr. William Hayne, of Jackson, Mississippi 152 MRS. GULIAN C. VERPLANCK (Eliza Fenno), of New York. Miniature by Edward G. Malbone, owned by Mrs. Benjamin Richards, of New York 155 MATILDA HOFFMAN. Miniature by Edward G. Malbone, owned by Mrs. George S. Bowdoin, of New York 155 RACHEL GRATZ (Mrs. Solomon Moses). Blue eyes, blonde hair, and delicate coloring, simple waist of white dotted muslin 160 REBECCA GRATZ. Dark eyes and hair, white muslin waist. Both of these miniatures, by Edward G. Malbone, are owned by great-nieces, the Misses Mordecai, of Philadelphia .... 160 xvi ILLUSTRATIONS Page JOSEPH KIRKBRIDE MILNOR. Miniature by Edward G. Malbone, owned by Miss Fanny G. Milnor, of Long Island, New York 164 MRS. CHARLES WILLING HARE (Anne Emlen). Miniature by Edward G. Malbone, owned by the Misses Hare, of Phila- delphia, granddaughters 164 COLONEL WILLIAM DRAYTON, of South Carolina. Minia- ture by Charles Eraser, owned by Emily Drayton Taylor, of Philadelphia, great-granddaughter 167 MARY THEODOSIA FORD, of Charleston, South Carolina. Miniature painted by Charles Eraser about 1829, owned by Miss Emma Ravenel, of Charleston, South Carolina. Brown eyes, light brown hair, with pink and white flowers in the hair; blue gown, with white kerchief bordered with tam- bour work, jet earrings and necklace ; an India scarf thrown over the arm ; background gray and blue sky, with foliage on the right side. Signed C. F 167 SAMUEL MILLIGAN. Miniature by J. Robinson, owned by Miss Hannah M. Milligan, of Philadelphia, daughter. Fine draw- ing and color, brown hair and eyes ; frame of fine gold filigree i6g JAMES WILLIAMS. Miniature by Benjamin Trott, owned by his granddaughter, Miss Alice Cooper, of Philadelphia. Deli- cate flesh tints ; background of blue sky with light clouds . 169 MRS. WILLIAM W. YOUNG (Martha Wetherill). Miniature by George Hewitt Cushman, owned by Miss Rebecca Weth- erill, of Philadelphia, sister X74 MRS. RICHARD WORSAM MEADE (Margaret Coates Butler, of Perth Amboy, New Jersey). Miniature by George A, Baker, owned by Miss Margaret Butler Meade, of Philadel- phia, granddaughter 174 MADAME LALLEMAND (Harriet Clark). Miniature by Anna Claypoole Peale, owned by Mr. Clarence Bement, of Phila- delphia. Brown hair, blue eyes, blue gown, and gray-green background, similar in color to those used by James Peale . xgo MRS. RICHARD HARLAN (Margaret Hart Simmons). Min- iature by Anna C. Peale, owned by a descendant, Mrs. John Rodgers, of Burlington, New Jersey xgo ANGELICA VALLAYE. Miniature by Anna C. Peale, owned by Mr. Clarence Bement. Delicate flesh tints, white gown with blue ribbons ; background of blue sky with light clouds xgo MRS. EDWARD BIDDLE (Jane Josephine Sarmiento). Minia- ture by George Freeman, owned by her son, Mr. Edward Bid- die, of Philadelphia. Dark hair and eyes, delicate complex- ion, black gown with white tulle veil thrown over the head . xgs xvii ILLUSTRATIONS Page FITZ-WILLIAM SARGENT. Miniature by Sarah Goodridge, owned by Miss Elizabeth B. Pleasants, of Philadelphia, great-niece 198 CHARLES M. POPE. Miniature by Nathaniel Jocelyn, owned by Mrs. J. Marx Etting, of Philadelphia, daughter. Fine in drawing and color 198 MRS. J. GREEN PEARSON, of New York (Eliza Bond). Min- iature by Charles C. Ingham, painted about 1824, owned by son-in-law, Mr. P. Kemble Paulding, of Cold Spring, New York 201 MRS. HENRY BEEKMAN LIVINGSTON (Anne Hume Ship- pen), of New York. Miniature in possession of Mrs. Edward Shippen, of Baltimore 202 ELIZABETH CARTER FARLEY. Miniature by Richard Brid- port, owned by Mrs. Edward Shippen, of Baltimore 202 THE HONORABLE AND MRS. JASPER YEATES. Minia- ture owned by Dr. John H. Brinton, of Philadelphia, de- scendant. Fine color ; background of dark red ; miniatures set in rich frames of pearls and jet 205 MRS. WILLING FRANCIS (Maria Bingham Willing). Min- iature attributed to George Freeman, owned by Mrs. John Thompson Spencer, of Philadelphia, niece. Large full gray eyes, golden hair, delicate coloring, white gown with gold and jewelled girdle, scarf of pale pink crepe ; blue back- ground, shaded into deep blue-gray cloud effect 207 ALEXANDER I. OF RUSSIA. Scarlet collar, blue ribbon, and orders 210 MARIA LOUISA OF BADEN, Empress of Russia. Blonde hair, blue ribbon, and orders. Both of these miniatures, painted in Russia by Edward Miles, are owned by his great- grandson, Edward S. Miles, of Philadelphia 210 GEORGE HEWITT CUSHMAN, of Connecticut. Miniature by himself, owned by his daughters, the Misses Cushman, of Philadelphia 213 REBECCA WETHERILL. Miniature by George Hewitt Cush- man, owned by Miss Rebecca Wetherill. Brown curling hair, delicate coloring, white gown and blue scarf 213 MRS. SETH CRAIGE (Angeline Shaw, of Maine). Miniature by J. Henry Brown, owned by Mrs. J. B. Lippincott, Senior, of Philadelphia. Dark hair and eyes, black gown 216 MRS. HENRY E. JOHNSTON (Harriet Lane), of Baltimore. Miniature by J. Henry Brown, owned by Mrs. H. E. Johnston. Blonde hair, blue eyes, white gown with lace bertha 216 xviii ILLUSTRATIONS Page MRS. WILLIAM HOWARD GARDINER, daughter of Colonel Thomas H. Perkins, of Boston, and wife of the distinguished lawyer, William H. Gardiner, who was called **the Horace Binney of Boston." Mrs. Gardiner's miniature was probably painted after her marriage in 1823, by an Italian artist, and is now owned by her great-grandson, Edward Carey Gardiner, of Philadel- phia. Dark hair and hazel eyes, white gown, pearl orna- ments, and bright red scarf ; background gray-green .... 220 MRS. ISAAC HAZLEHURST (Caroline E. Jacobs, of Lan- caster, Pennsylvania). Miniature by J. Henry Brown, owned by George A. Hazlehurst, of Philadelphia, son. Brown hair, gray eyes, delicate coloring ; black velvet gown trimmed with lace, and red India scarf 226 EDITH MOORE TAYLOR, of Philadelphia. Miniature by Emily Drayton Taylor, owned by the same. Hair golden brown, eyes gray-blue, skin very white, with high color ; dress cream white, old lace scarf, black belt, gray hat; foliage in background, with blue sky showing on the left side of the picture 228 MRS. CLEMENT B. NEWBOLD (Mary Scott), of Philadel- phia. Miniature by Emily Drayton Taylor, owned by Mr. Clement B. Newbold. Hat leghorn with black plumes, hair rich brown, eyes brown, skin very white and transparent, with warm color, dress blue and white E'^riped with little flowers, white mull and lace kerchief ; foliage in background, blue sky, and landscape to left 230 MADAME JEROME BONAPARTE, of Baltimore. Miniature by Jean Baptiste Augustin, owned by the Honorable Craig Biddle, of Philadelphia. Dark eyes and hair, white gown with gold girdle and blue scarf 232 Miniature of niece of Admiral Coffin, by Richard Cosway, owned by Miss Margaret Jouett Menefee, of Louisville, Ken- tucky 234 HONORABLE JOHN DRAYTON, of South Carolina. Minia- ture by Richard Cosway, owned by great-niece, Emily Drayton Taylor, of Philadelphia. Beautiful in color and drawing, powdered hair, dark gray coat ; background of blue sky with light clouds 234 RICHARD WORSAM MEADE, of Philadelphia. Miniature by Jean Baptiste Isabey, owned by Emily King Paterson, of Perth Amboy, New Jersey. Hair powdered, brown eyes, deli- cate coloring, blue coat, and white stock. This miniature is set in whole pearls, with a design in hair and pearls on the back 236 xix ILLUSTRATIONS Page MRS. RICHARD C. DERBY, of Salem, Massachusetts. Min- iature painted by Edward Greene Malbone about 1799, owned by great-nephew, Dr. William P. Derby, of Boston 238 Three miniatures by Edward Miles, used as examples of fine drawing and composition, owned by Edward S. Miles, great- grandson 240 DR. S. WEIR MITCHELL, of Philadelphia. Miniature by Emily Drayton Taylor, owned by Dr. S. Weir Mitchell. Hair, moustache, and beard steel gray, eyes blue, coat black ; back- ground soft gray 242 XX HEIRLOOMS IN MINIATURES 1 CHAPTER I. COLONIAI. ART IN reviewing the conditions of life in the different Colonies, those of the South, in which the struggle for existence was less rigorous than in the Northern settlements, would seem to have offered a more genial atmosphere for the development of art than the chill seaboard of New England. Virginia, with its considerable admixture of the cava- lier element in its population, gay, debonair, beauty-loving, and pleasure-loving, is the Province which of all others would appear most congenial to the Muse of the poet and the inspiration of the artist. Yet, although George Sandys was translating Ovid's Meta- morphoses'* on the banks of the James as early as 1621, and Drayton, in writing of Virginia about the same time, proposed to " Entice the Muses thither to repair ; Entreat them gently ; train them to the air," these coy damsels, for some reason, failed to identify themselves with the life and spirit of the South as did those who inspired certain singers of the Northern and Middle Colo- nies. Nor did any native artist of note except II HEIRLOOMS IN MINIATURES Hesselius arise in those early days to perpet- uate with pencil and brush the charms of the daughters of the Old Dominion. Most of the old portraits which still adorn the homes of Virginia were executed by Lely, Kneller, Van- dyck, Reynolds, and other foreign artists. John Hesselius was living in Annapolis, painting portraits there and in Virginia, prior to 1759, as were Manly and Durand twelve years later. The works of Manly seem to have made no permanent impression. His name is men- tioned in hand-books as a pioneer in American art, while of Durand, who executed a number of portraits in Virginia, Mr. Sully says, His works are hard and dry, but appear to have been strong likenesses, with less vulgarity of style than artists of his calibre generally possess.** In hand-books of American art Gustavus Hesselius has for some reason been overlooked, and all the paintings marked Hes- selius have been attributed to John Hesse- lius. In the will of Gustavus Hesselius, proved May 29, 1755, he describes himself as a " face painter,** and mentions a son John as execu- tor.* From this fact, taken in connection with ^ Gustavus Hesselius, a Swede, who lived in Philadel- phia between 1744 and 1750, was, says Mr. John W. Jordan, "undoubtedly the first builder of organs in the Colonies, antedating the Boston maker by fifteen years." Hesselius, who was a member of the Moravian Church, built the organ for the Moravian Church in Bethlehem in 1744, as can be proved by his bills for the work. 12 Mrs. William Plumsted (Mary McCall) Page 13 HEIRLOOMS IN MINIATURES the circumstance that Gustavus Hesselius painted altar pieces in some of the old churches in Maryland and Virginia, it is reasonable to believe that some Southern as well as several of the early Philadelphia portraits attributed to John Hesselius w^ere executed by his father, who was painting before the middle of the century. Among these are portraits of Joshua Mad- dox, a well-known Philadelphia merchant, and his wife, and of Mrs. Wallace, one of the belles of the Philadelphia Dancing Assembly of 1748, all of which are painted in the style of Kneller, with the broad shadows noticeable in the work of that artist. This, and other marked characteristics, have caused several unsigned portraits to be attributed to Hesse- lius. Another of these portraits is that of Mary McCall, whose attractive face also looks forth from a miniature of the day. Mary McCall married William Plumsted, who was several times elected Mayor of Phila- delphia. An Hui presented to the bride by her husband upon their wedding day, May 27, 1753? is still preserved in the family. This handsome adornment, in addition to being fur- nished with many useful articles in solid gold, contains a tiny gold butter-taster; which shows that the ladies of the olden time, despite the stately elegance in which they appear in their portraits, did not consider it beneath their dig- nity personally to superintend their households, even to the tasting of butter in the market. 13 HEIRLOOMS IN MINIATURES Mrs. Plumsted^s brother, Archibald McCall, whose miniature was painted about the same time, was one of the first East India mer- chants of his day. His home, at the corner of Second and Union Streets, with its many curios brought from foreign lands, and his garden, in which were gathered strange ani- mals and birds, were a delight to the children of the family and the neighborhood. The portraits of Joseph Pemberton and his wife, Anne Galloway, daughter of Joseph Gal- loway, of Anne Arundel County, Maryland, have been assigned to Hesselius in conse- quence of certain marked characteristics of style. A quaint story has come down to this generation with the portrait of Anne Gallo- way. When Joseph Pemberton set forth from Philadelphia, like Ccelebs, in search of a wife, his intention was to proceed to Virginia and marry one of the ''Pleasants girls." On his journey he stopped in Maryland, where he was hospitably entertained at ''Tulip Hill.*' Here the charms of Anne Galloway, or, per- chance, the substantial attractions of her father's broad acres, so wrought upon his youthful imagination that he journeyed no farther, and the "Pleasants girls'* sighed in vain for this particular lover, although they apparently found others to their liking. The marked characteristics of the style of Kneller noticed in these early portraits go to prove that they were by the elder Hesse- lius, as his son could not have studied with 14 HEIRLrOOMS IN MINIATURES Kneller, nor could he have had an opportunity of seeing many of his paintings, there being no record of John Hesselius having visited the Old World before the middle of the century. John Hesselius has been spoken of as a son of Samuel Hesselius, a Swedish missionary ; but the fact has lately been established that John Hesselius was the son of Gustavus and a nephew of the two Swedish missionaries, Samuel and Andreas Hesselius.* John Hesselius was living in Philadelphia in 1749, as his name appears in the list of sub- scribers to the Philadelphia Dancing Assembly of that year; but he had evidently gone to Maryland some time before 1755, as he wrote from Philadelphia under date of June 26, 1755- ** I have been so hurried in my affairs since I came here, and now since the death of my dear father, that I hope you will excuse my seeming neglect in not writing before. My being left executor of my father's estate has obliged me to remain and to stay much longer in Philadelphia than I desired, but I hope in a fortnight more I shall be moving down to Virginia, and as soon as I can dispatch the business I have on hand there I intend to come to Maryland, where I have already left niy heart." * For this information the author is indebted to Mr. Charles Henry Hart, of Philadelphia, who has made an exhaustive study of the subject. 15 HEIRLOOMS IN MINIATURES Whether John Hesselius had given his heart to some unrequiting fair one of Maryland, or whether he then worshipped at a distance, as the star of his boyhood, the woman who was destined to be his wife eight years later, the family chronicle does not relate. Mrs. Henry Woodward was at this time living with her first husband upon his estate, Bellefield, on the Severn River. In January, 1763, Mr. Hesselius married the widow of Henry Woodward. Mrs. Woodward is described as a woman of strong and individual character and deep religious feeling. **When,** says her great-granddaughter. Miss Murray, the name of Methodist was a reproach, Mrs. Woodward made them [the Methodists] welcome to Primrose, and their services were often held there. Deeply at- tached to her own Church, she beheld with grief its low estate, and while she welcomed these servants of God, who came preaching the pure Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ in its simplicity and fulness, she believed that they were sent as messengers of God to the Episcopal Church to arouse His people from their slumber and awaken them to a higher life. . . . Several of her most intimate friends, par- ticularly her son-in-law, Philip Rogers, Esq., and Mrs. Prudence Gough, of Perry Hall, connected themselves with that society; but when the Methodists finally separated them- 16 HEIRLOOMS IN MINIATURES selves from the Church, she remained true to the Church of her fathers/'* A portrait of Mrs. Hesselius, with two of her children, painted by her second husband, represents a woman of regular features with a serene and noble expression of countenance, justifying what her grandson, Dr. Addison, says of her distinguished beauty in old age. In her Family Picture,*' a long descriptive poem, Mrs. Hesselius sternly reproves the faults of her fledglings, while she reveals much maternal pride and affection in a series of verses that defy the scanning of the scholar. Harriet Hesselius, Charlotte, who ** loves a craped head and is fond of a train,*' ^* young Caroline," whose frown often puts all the graces to flight," and Eliza, the child of my care," all appear at length in the maternal poem, as do some of their quaint little faces in portraits which were the work of the father, John Hesselius. A charming miniature of Charlotte Hesselius is preserved in her family which is of quite too late a date to have been painted by her father, who died in 1778. Charlotte, like her mother, had a turn for rhyming, as is proved by a will still extant composed by Miss Charlotte Heselius, first wife of Thomas Jen- nings Johnson, Esq., and daughter of Heselius, the portrait limner." * " One Hundred Years Ago," by Elizabeth Hesselius Murray. 2 17 HEIRLOOMS IN MINIATURES A sarcastic, cleverly worded will is this, in which the fine humor of the girl writer finds expression in some of the lines, and in which the testator, William Farris, watch-maker at Annapolis, Maryland, thus washes his hands of some of his neighborly grudges : ** To Nancy, the darling of me and my wife, I give and bequeath the spinet for life. Once I thought she would play with the help of a master, But, it grieves me to say, she learned not a bit faster. Harry Woodcock I trusted to teach her to play, But I soon found 'twas money and time thrown away ; So she did what was right, made me save all my pelf,* And picked out a tune here and there by herself. All the town knows that Harry's a very great liar. And music from him she could never acquire. What a time there has been for his making of money ! Like a puppy, he's missed it ; like a puppy, he's funny. Poor devil, sometimes, in the midst of a gloom. For a dinner he's forced to play the buffoon ; But I still like old Woodcock, I vow and declare ; As a proof, I shall leave him a lock of my hair."* Charlotte and Eliza Hesselius were married the same night, the latter to Walter Dulaney, Jr. Of this wedding a family chronicler thus writes : My Aunt Charlotte was married on the same night to Mr. Thomas Johnson (son of the Governor), and a very large company was invited to Primrose. The bridesmaids were Miss Sarah Leitch (daughter of Major Leitch, aid to Gen'l Washington, who was killed at Harlem Plains ; she afterwards married my * ** Old Maryland," by Frank B. Mayer. i8 Mrs. Philip Rogers By Charles Willson Peale Page 19 HEIRLOOMS IN MINIATURES uncle, John Addison) ; Miss Murray, after- wards Mrs. Gov. Lloyd ; Miss Maria Murray, afterwards Mrs. Gen'l Mason, and Miss Crom- well, afterwards Mrs. Lee.'* Miss Leitch must have been a rare beauty, as one of the wedding guests, Mrs. Belt, thus writes of her : Miss Leitch, with her hair crimped, looks divinely. Great preparations are making for her appearance at the Races. She has worked herself a very handsome muslin gown with a long train, and fortunately a new cap and some other little articles of finery are just arrived from England." Another guest at this wedding was Mrs. Philip Rogers, a half-sister of the brides, Eliza and Charlotte Hesselius, and an own sister of Harriet Woodward, who married Colonel Edward Brice. Rebecca Young Woodward married Philip Rogers in 1776 at the age of twenty. She does not appear in the Family Picture'' of Mrs. John Hesselius, although her sister Harriet is there, — ** Like the low, humble violet, content with the shade, Nor envies the tulip its gaudy parade." The mother deals more tenderly with Har- riet than with her other children, probably because she was a widow at the time of the writing, although she later emerged from the shade of her weeds sufficiently to marry Mr. Murray. A miniature of Mrs. Philip Rogers by 19 HEIRLOOMS IN MINIATURES Charles Willson Peale is in the possession of her descendants. Unfortunately, the miniature is not dated, but from the youthfulness of the face there is good reason to believe that it was painted a few years after her marriage. In a letter written to Mrs. Walter Dulaney, Mrs. Rogers speaks of sitting to Mr. Peale for her miniature, since she desires it, Mr. Peale being soon expected in Baltimore. Mrs. Walter Du- laney was a daughter of Mr. Richard Grafton, of New Castle, Delaware. In one of her school-girl letters to her father from Phila- delphia in 1739 she tells him of the progress that she has made in dancing, which she hopes **may answer to the Expense, and enable me to appear well in any Polite Company." That the Annapolis life was formal and ceremonious as well as gay we gather from various sources. Two of Mrs. Walter Du- laney's grandsons came to Annapolis from London in 1789. Dr. Addison, in his recol- lections, gives the following account of the introduction of these young men into the brilliant Annapolis circles, as an instance of the punctilious observance of the etiquette of the day : My Uncle John and himself [young Walter Dulaney] were invited to an evening party. After dinner, as was his wont, he took an airing in the riding costume of an English gentleman, which he had brought with him from England. It consisted of small clothes of yellow buckskin, blue coat, red cassimere 20 HEIRLOOMS IN MINIATURES vest, and fine top-boots. Of this swell cos- tume he appears to have been vain, and on his return he did not disrobe, but presented him- self in this trim to an astonished assembly of elegantly dressed ladies and gentlemen. He had not anticipated such a scene (which equalled anything he had seen in London), and thought he could dress as he pleased. Great was his dismay and confusion. He was met at the door by his Grandmamma Dulaney in highly offended dignity. * What do you mean, Walter, by such an exhibition? Go immediately home to your room and return in a befitting dress.* And he was very glad to go, and soon returned in silk stockings, embroidered vest, etc. He told me of his great astonishment at the splendor of the ladies' dresses and the adornments of the apartments.*' To John Woolaston, who painted in Phila- delphia as early as 1758 and in Virginia a little later, we are indebted for a number of Colonial portraits. Among these is the only portrait extant of Martha Washington in her early matronhood, while Woolaston's painting of the grandmother of John Randolph of Roanoke is said to be an excellent portrait. Mr. Charles Willson Peale says that Woolaston acquired his skill of painting drapery from an English artist, while Mr. Dunlap observed in his style suggestions of the influence of Kneller, an influence that could have come to Woolaston only from a study of the works of Kneller. 21 HEIRLOOMS IN MINIATURES An interesting souvenir of Woolaston's stay- in Philadelphia is to be found in The American Magazine for September, 1758, in the form of some verses written by Francis Hopkinson, in which his youthful enthusiasm for the artist and his work found expression in the following lines : " Ofttimes with wonder and delight I stand, To view the amazing conduct of your hand. At first unlabour'd sketches lightly trace The glimmering outlines of a human face ; Then by degrees the liquid life overflows Each rising feature — the rich canvas glows With heightened charms — the forehead rises fair. And glossy ringlets twine the nut-brown hair ; The sparkling eyes give meaning to the whole And seem to speak the dictates of a soul, The lucid lips in rosy sweetness drest. The well-turned neck and the luxuriant breast, The silk that richly flows with graceful air — All tell the hand of Woolaston was there." John Woolaston pursued his art in Maryland and Virginia, and may even have carried it far- ther south into the Carolinas, where no native artist of distinction appeared until the days of Washington Allston and Charles Fraser. Although Hesselius, Woolaston, and other artists, native and foreign, were doing work of more or less excellence in several of the Middle and Southern Colonies, it was in New Eng- land, where the atmosphere was much more strongly charged with theology than with art or beauty, and in Quaker Pennsylvania, where the graces of character were more assiduously 22 HEIRLOOMS IN MINIATURES cultivated than those of form, that painting was destined to gain its strongest foothold and to make its most enduring impression. Robert Feke, a Rhode Island Quaker, who was painting in Newport in 1746, executed portraits of the Reverend John Callender, of Newport, and the beautiful wife of Governor Wanton, of Rhode Island. He evidently vis- ited Philadelphia, as a portrait by him of Mrs. Charles Willing, wife of the Mayor, and one of Tench Francis, signed R. Feke, 1746, are in the possession of their descendants. The follow- ing romantic story told of Robert Feke may contain some grains of truth : ** Feke, although of Dutch descent, was a Quaker, who joined the Baptist Church and thereby gave offence to his father. The young man then embraced a seafaring life, and in one of his voyages was taken prisoner by the Spaniards and carried off to Spain. While a captive in that far-off land he sought to relieve the tediousness of a long imprisonment by some rude attempts at paint- ing. The sale of these poor pictures, after his release, procured him the means of returning to America.'* From the work done by him later, it looks as if Feke had had the good fortune to study with some of the Spanish masters. He died in Bermuda, at the age of forty-four years. John Watson, a Scotchman, was painting in Philadelphia some time prior to 1728, and William Williams in 1746. The former settled 23 HEIRLOOMS IN MINIATURES in Perth Amboy, New Jersey, and from there made visits to Philadelphia. Upon one of these sojourns in the Quaker City Mr. Watson made pen-and-ink sketches of Governor William Keith and his wife, Lady Anne Keith. After painting in Philadelphia for some time he re- turned to Perth Amboy, where he died in 1728. Two early American artists, little known to- day, were John Meng and Henry Bembridge. John Meng was the son of Christopher Meng, of Manheim, Germany, who came to America in 1728 and settled in Germantown, Philadelphia. John early developed a talent for painting, which not being encouraged by his father, he left home and went to the West Indies, where he died in 1754 at the early age of twenty. A few of John Meng's paintings are still pre- served in Germantown families. Henry Bembridge was born in Philadelphia in 1750. His parents were wealthy and en- couraged his taste for art. While quite young he painted the panels of a room in his father's house with historical designs and copies made from the cartoons of Raphael. These frescoes were executed with such skill that they at- tracted many visitors to Mr. Bembridge's house, which, Mr. Peale says, was in Lodge Alley. Henry Bembridge went to Rome in 1770, and studied there for some time under Pompeio Battoni and Raphael Mengs. On his return to America, about 1774, he settled in Charleston, South Carolina. He afterwards came back to Philadelphia and married a Miss Sage. Several 24 HEIRLOOMS IN MINIATURES small pictures of Commodore Truxton and family are attributed to Bembridge, whose son married a daughter of the Commodore. A miniature by Bembridge is in the possession of Mr. William M. Tilghman, of Philadelphia. Mr. Peale in his recollections* speaks of Miss Mary Wrench, who was painting minia- tures in Philadelphia prior to the Revolution, thus antedating Miss Goodridge, the Boston miniature painter, by many years. Mr. Peale says that he called to see Miss Wrench one day, having some curiosity about her work, and after she had shown the artist some of her miniatures, he asked her if she ever had heard of Charles Willson Peale. She said that she had, and wished she could take some lessons of him. He replied, I am Mr. Peale, and will be glad to give you some lessons.'* Miss Wrench was overcome with confusion, and said she would never have shown her work had she known that her visitor was so distin- guished an artist. Another evidence of Miss Wrench's modesty, which seems to us rather strained in these days, is that she did not like to paint gentlemen's portraits, but was, as she explained, constrained to do it because she needed the money. Miss Wrench afterwards married Mr. Rush and painted no more.f ^ These unprinted recollections of Charles Willson Peale are in the possession of a member of the family. f This is probably the William Rush who is spoken of by Mr. Peale as a "modeller." He was by trade a carver of ships' heads, and Dunlap says " by talent and study an artist." 25 HEIRLOOMS IN MINIATURES Mr. Peale gives no opinion with regard to the quality of the work of this early woman miniaturist, but the fact that she supported her family from the proceeds of her painting proves that she was successful in obtaining orders. The prices then paid for portraits and miniatures prove that the profession of an artist was not a royal road to fortune. The Dutch settlers, who infused so much industry, thrift, and legislative sagacity into the life of New Amsterdam, seem to have brought with them little or no artistic ability. The flowers and plants imported by them showed them to have possessed the love of beauty that belonged to a race of great artists, but the portraits of stiff and staid men and women, which adorned their homes in early days and are still to be found among the de- scendants of the Knickerbockers, were exe- cuted by foreign artists. Among such portraits is a quaint old miniature of Elsje Tymens, whose physiognomy, as well as her name, bespeaks her Dutch blood. Elsje Tymens's mother was Marritje Jans, a sister of the celebrated Anneke Jans, of whom a num- ber of spirited anecdotes are related. Her step-father was Govert Loockermans. Elsje Tymens was twice married, — first to Pieter Corneliszen Van der Veen ; secondly, in 1663, to Jacob Leisler, who upon the defeat of James II. and the accession of William, Prince of Orange, and the disturbances in New Amster- dam which followed these important events, 26 Mrs. Jacob Leisler Page 28 HEIRLOOMS IN MINIATURES led a rebellion against the authorities. Leisler was so successful in carrying the populace with him that he became Commander-in- Chief of the Province of New York, and for some months exercised supreme control. A curious page of Colonial history is pre- sented at this time, when Jacob Leisler ruled the Province with despotic power, although not once named in the King's commission. Ignored one day by the officers of the Prov- ince, and on another called upon to aid them against the French and Indians, who were continually menacing the northern and west- ern borders, he was finally treated with an in- justice greater than that which he meted out to others. In the foreground the pictures are such stalwart figures as Stephanus Van Cortlandt,* Peter Schuyler, Mayor of Albany, Colonel Nicholas Bayard, and, for picturesqueness, the royal Governors, Nicholson and Bella- * Stephanus Van Cortlandt was Mayor of New York at this time. His authority was openly defied by Jacob Leisler and his powers usurped. When Leisler sent the constable to Mayor Van Cortlandt's home to demand the seals and charter of the city, Madam Geertruyd Van Cort- landt, a sister of Mayor Schuyler, who is described as a woman of commanding presence and manner, received the committee with the constable at its head politely, but declined to resign the symbols of her husband's authority, which had been left in her care, and when the committee retired and a sergeant-at-arms visited her, she shut the door in his face and defied his threats. 27 HEIRLOOMS IN MINIATURES mont, laced and plumed, while in the back- ground stand heroic Geertruyd Van Cortlandt, Madam Staats, the Eastern beauty, Anneke Jans, wife of the beloved Parson Everardus Bogardus, and Mrs. Leisler, surrounded by her daughters, delicate, golden-haired Mary Leisler, who, whether from love or fear his- tory telleth not, married her father's prime favorite, aider, and abettor, James Milborne, and Hester Leisler, who shares with Carolina Staats the honor of being the heroine of Mr. Bynner's story of *'The Begum's Daughter/' It is not strange that the novelist chose for the setting of his tale the unique and pictur- esque town of New Amsterdam, or that he placed it chronologically in this most stirring period of Colonial life. Mr. Bynner's charac- ters are, as a rule, admirably drawn ; but from what family tradition has handed down of Mrs. Leisler and her doings, she appears to have been a woman of more force of character than the novelist has given her credit for. Mrs. Jacob Leisler finally succeeded, with the aid of her son and her friends, and by means of one of those sudden revulsions of popular feeling that often follow a high-handed measure in government, in obtaining from the Parliament of Great Britain a reversal of her husband's attainder. In her miniature, which was painted in her younger days before the blight of a great sorrow fell upon her life, Elsje Leisler appears with a serene and un- troubled face, arrayed in a blue gown with a 28 HEIRLOOMS IN MINIATURES white neckerchief and cap trimmed with lace and red ribbons. The miniature came into possession of its present owner through Eliza- beth Rynders Bayard, a daughter of Hester Leisler and Barent Rynders, whose marriage is the unexpected happening of Mr. Bynner's story. Interesting and romantic incidents, worthy to engage the brush of the artist or the pen of the novelist, are to be found in the early history of all the Colonies. Even if later historians are disposed to throw discredit upon the time- honored story of the proxy wooing of Priscilla MuUins (or Molines) by assuring us that Cap- tain Myles Standish was having a helpmeet imported for him at the very time that he was supposed to have placed his love affairs in the hands of John Alden, there were all over New England romances as fresh and sweet as the May flowers that starred her rocky hill-sides, while in Pennsylvania and the Lower Coun- ties Quaker maidens won hearts and reigned over them as absolutely as their more gayly attired sisters in the Southern Colonies. A quaint old Delaware story is told of the wooing and winning of Katharine HoUings- worth, daughter of Valentine HoUingsworth, one of those who accompanied William Penn in the Welcome and settled upon the banks of the picturesque Brandy wine. Katharine Hol- lingsworth, a lovely, beautiful, and delectable Quaker maiden,'' as she was called, became the pride and delight of the little settlement. 29 HEIRLOOMS IN MINIATURES Of all the young men who sought her love, Big George Robinson alone found favor in her eyes, and she promised to be his wife ; but George was of the Church of England, and Katharine **must be married in Meeting/' George was willing to join the Society, be a Friend, and be married in Meeting or any- where else that Katharine said ; accordingly he and Katharine made their first declaration 5th day, ist month, 1688. The older Friends had ''scruples," and fearing that George's very sudden conversion was not from conviction, they asked him this searching question : Friend Robinson, dost thou join the Society of Friends from conviction, or for the love of Katharine HoUingsworth George hesitated ; he was in a dilemma. He did want to marry his dear Katharine, but he also prized the truth. He knew she was worthy of the best he had to give, and, bracing himself up for a valiant answer, he said, '* I wish to join the Society for the love of Kath- arine HoUingsworth.'* The Friends consulted and counselled "delay, and that Friend Robinson should be gently, persuasively, and instructively dealt with.'' Katharine naturally proved the most suc- cessful of teachers in this extremity. In a year George was ready to join the Society as a true convert. We read that " He and Katharine were permitted to begin a long and happy married life together, being," as the 30 Mrs. Samuel Emlen (Susan Dillwyn) Page 33 HEIRLOOMS IN MINIATURES old manuscript says, **for many years an example of Piety and Goodness to those around them, and retaining their Love of Truth and Loyalty to the Society to the last." Another Quaker maiden who carried her charms to the Friends' Meeting at Third Haven, near Talbot Court-House, was Sarah Covington, of Somerset County, Maryland, who was seen on her way thither and loved at first sight by two gay young cavaliers, Ed- ward and Philemon Lloyd. According to the story told by Dr. Palmer, the two brothers met at the gate of the fair one's home. " First they swore, then they blushed, and then they laughed loud -and long. Phil said, * Let her be for whichever, you or I, did see her first;' and Ned, the elder and the heir, as- sented. * No sooner had I taken my place in the meeting than I beheld the girl and loved her.' And Ned said, * I passed the night before the meeting at the Peach Blos- som farm, and at the foot of the hill, turning into the gate at the watermill, I saw this girl on a pillion behind her father, and they inquired the way to the meeting-house ; and I loved her.' Then Phil rode back to Talbot, and Ned dismounted at the gate and led his horse to the porch. Thus in 1703 Sarah Covington became the wife of the heir, and mistress of Wye House."* * " Certain Worthies and Dames of Old Maryland," by John Williamson Palmer. 31 HEIRLOOMS IN MINIATURES From this fair Quakeress were descended many of the beauties of Wye House. A granddaughter of Sarah Covington, Elizabeth Lloyd, married General John Cadwalader, of Philadelphia, a distinguished soldier of the Revolution, and their daughter Maria came back to her mother's native State as the wife of Samuel Ringgold, of Fountain Rock.* Although the attractions of young Quaker- esses have been dwelt upon by many travellers from the early days of the settlement to later times, when beautiful Polly Lawton led captive the hearts of the French officers in Newport, few of them have had their charms perpetuated in portrait or miniature. The rarity of such pictures may be accounted for by the fact that the painting of portraits, large or small, was considered a worldly vanity by many Friends. Some good Quakers, however, during visits to London or Paris indulged in this vanity for the gratification of wives and daughters at home. The costumes in which these worthy gentle- men appeared in their portraits sometimes shocked their Friendly relatives. Samuel Wharton's court-dress of sky-blue satin trimmed with lace was very un-Quakerlike, while Samuel Powel was represented in his miniature in apparel so gay that it excited ^ Elizabeth Lloyd Cadwalader died in early matronhood, and General Cadwalader married, secondly, Williamina Bond, who inherited the distinguished beauty of her grand- mother, Williamina Moore, of Moore Hall, Pennsylvania. 32 General John Cadwalader Page 32 Mrs. John Cadwalader (Elizabeth Lloyd) Page 32 HEIRLOOMS IN MINIATURES "remark" among Friends, one of whom charitably concluded that Sammy did not dress like that, but that one of those artists had dressed him up to have his picture taken." Among the few miniatures of Quaker women that have come down to this generation are those of Susan Emlen and Hannah Morris. Neither of these portraits was painted in early youth ; but both reveal a beauty of feature and a charm of expression that in some faces age seems powerless to wither or custom to stale. Mrs. Emlen was a daughter of Sarah and William Dillwyn and a granddaughter of James Logan, of Stenton, among whose many claims to distinction not the least is that he was long the private secretary and close friend of William Penn. Mrs. Emlen is described as a woman of rare loveliness of character, a worthy helpmeet to her husband, Samuel Emlen, who was an eminent minister of the Society of Friends. Their home was West Hill," Burlington County, New Jersey. Mrs. Samuel Morris was so beautiful that she was called the Rose of Sharon," and although her miniature was not painted until she had passed her sixtieth year, it bears traces of the loveliness for which she was distinguished in early days. A daughter of the first John Cadwalader, and wife of Samuel Morris, vice-president of the Council of Safety, she belonged to a family of Quakers ''sufficiently enlightened," to use the words of the family chronicler, **to understand that 3 33 HEIRLOOMS IN MINIATURES they served God best by doing their duty to their country in her hour of need."* Mrs. Morris seems to have possessed many graces of character as well as of form, among these the domestic virtue of good house-keep- ing, which dates back to the days of Solomon. She and her husband entertained most hos- pitably at their country place, which was near the estate of their brother-in-law, Samuel Dickinson, especially during the Yearly Meet- ing, upon which occasion, says the same pleasant narrator, eighty beds were often pre- pared for guests, and a stock of a hundred pies and puddings baked. The miniature of Mrs. Morris was painted for her son, Cadwalader Morris, during his absence in the West Indies. A miniature of Cadwalader Morris has been preserved among his descendants, and we learn from contemporaneous records that he was not only sufficiently liberal in his views to have his portrait painted, but that he be- longed to the First Troop, Philadelphia City Cavalry, which did good service during the War of the Revolution. Another portrait of Cadwalader Morris is to be found upon a large canvas by Trumbull, in which he com- memorated the resigning of his commission by Washington at Annapolis in 1783. The wife of Cadwalader Morris was Anne ^ Recollections of Mrs. Charles M. Wheatley, a great- granddaughter of Mrs. Samuel Morris. 34 Cadwalader Morris Page 34 Mrs. Samuel Morris Page 33 Mrs. Cadwalader Morris Page 35 Amos Strettell Page 35 HEIRLOOMS IN MINIATURES Strettell, who was described as the best edu- cated woman in Philadelphia. Miss Strettell was educated abroad, having lived in London during her early years with a middle-aged bachelor uncle, John Strettell, who was spoken of as an opulent merchant of Lime Street. After Miss Strettell had brought her charms and accomplishments to her native city to lead captive the heart of Cadwalader Morris, Mr. John Strettell married and had two sons. . The miniature of one of these sons, Amos Strettell, was sent to his Philadelphia rela- tives, by whom it is still preserved. The miniatures of Mrs. Samuel Morris and her son Cadwalader were painted late enough in the century to have been the work of James Peale. Some curious directions with regard to copy- ing a portrait in miniature of a young wife have been found in a letter from a Maryland gentleman to his son in London. The portrait of the wife, who had recently died, was evi- dently the work of John Hesselius, and was sent by the father of the lady, the Reverend Henry Addison, of Barnaby Manor, Maryland, to London to be copied, with the following instructions : I could wish it to be done by one of the best artists. It is to be set in gold, with a view of being worn suspended by a riband round the neck. The features must be exactly preserved. The artist may exercise his fancy with Respect to the Drapery, which is rather 35 HEIRLOOMS IN MINIATURES glaring in the piece be is to copy from. He may be told that the lady, having married, died at twenty-five, and therefore something som- bre and funereal in the Drapery might be proper. The dress, I think, ought to be an- tique, and the hair, which appears powdered, might be darkened and, being somewhat dis- hevelled, brought obliquely across the breast. The gold frame must bear the following in- scription : ' Eleanor Callis, ob. March 26, 1724, set. 25. Ah optime si tut obsistasP *'You must also send four lockets for ladies to be worn about the neck, with a crystal in each, covering an urn made of the hair I send you herewith, bearing the same inscription, with two plain mourning rings for Mr. Callis and your brother, with an urn covered with crystal and the same inscription.*' Fortunately, the artist did not accept the '^sombre'* suggestions further than to change the pink dress to purple. A charming miniature from Virginia is that of Jane Grey Wall, who married Thomas Shore, of Petersburg, and was the mother of Mary Louise Shore, who became the wife of Dr. William Shippen, of Philadelphia. Dr. Shippen, who was demonstrator of anatomy at the University of Pennsylvania, was a grandson of Dr. William Shippen, who gave the first lecture on anatomy delivered in America. It was of this Dr. Shippen's pro- pensity for kissing' ' that Miss Sarah Eve wrote so naively in her diary, — because, for- 36 Mrs. Thomas Shore, of Virginia (Jane Grey Wall) Page 36 HEIRLOOMS IN MINIATURES sooth, it decomposes the economy of one's handkerchief, it disorders one's high roll, and it ruffles the serenity of one's countenance." Of lovely Sarah Eve, who was the fiancee of Dr. Benjamin Rush, only pen pictures are preserved. She died in 1774 in the flower of her youth and beauty. To prove that she could be grave as well as gay, one who knew her well said of her, when her com- panions argued from the stateliness of her appearance and the fashionable style in which her hair was always dressed that she was proud, that ''there was more humility under Sarah Eve's high head-dress than under many a Quaker bonnet," 37 HEIRLOOMS IN MINIATURES CHAPTER II. TWO PIONEERS IN AMERICAN ART A LTHOUGH Smibert and Blackburn were /\ painting in Boston as early as 1725, X Jl Robert Feke in Rhode Island in 1746, John Watson in Philadelphia before 1728, and the Hesseliuses in several of the Colonies before 1763, it was reserved for two young men, born within a year of one another, Benjamin West and John Singleton Copley, to gain a distinct recognition for American art, not only in their own country, but among art patrons of the Old World. Benjamin West, the youngest of a family of ten children, was born on the loth of October, 1738, of Quaker parents, the ancestors of his father, John West, having come to Pennsyl- vania with William Penn at the time of his second visit to the Province. The small stone house in which Benjamin West first saw the light is still standing. It is in Springfield Township, about five miles north of Chester and near Swarthmore Col- lege. The painter was born in the lower room at the southwest corner, and is said to have made his early experiments in portraiture in the garret above that room. Whether or not there is any truth in the quaint story of young West having pulled the hairs out of the cat's tail to make a brush with 38 HEIRLOOMS IN MINIATURES which to paint the face of his sleeping niece, there is no doubt that the materials which he used were of the crudest, and that nothing but a strong inborn love of art and indomitable perseverance carried the future President of the British Royal Academy through the strug- gles of his early years. Those who are familiar with the neighbor- hood of Springfield, in which the Quaker lad spent his childhood, and with the simplicity of rural life in Pennsylvania, can readily credit the tales that have come down to this generation of the persistent efforts and ingenious devices through which he strove to give form to his ideas. We can imagine him escaping from the task of ploughing, to which his father had set him, and in a fence-corner executing rude portraits of a neighboring family with an im- provised brush and with the juice of the poke- berry for coloring. Many of the stories told by Gait of Benjamin West's youth are improb- able, some of them impossible, while others carry conviction with them. There is no reason to doubt that Mrs. West's indigo pot supplied the young artist with blue, and that friendly Indians who visited the settlements shared with him the red and yellow earth used by them for the decoration of their persons. One of Benjamin West's biographers says that he made his colors of charcoal and chalk mixed with the juice of berries, these colors being laid on with the hair of a cat drawn through a goose quill, and that when about 39 HEIRLOOMS IN MINIATURES nine years of age he drew on a sheet of paper the portraits of a neighboring family, in which the delineation of each individual was suffi- cientlj^ accurate to be immediately recognized by his father when the picture was first shown to him. When about twelve years old, he drew a portrait of himself, with his hair hang- ing loosely about his shoulders.*' One of the first portraits in oil that the boy saw was one of Mr. Samuel Shoemaker, executed by William Williams, an English painter then working in Philadelphia. The older artist became interested in the boy's ambition to be a painter and loaned him the works of Fresnay and Richardson. Mr. Penington, a Quaker merchant, who visited the home of the Wests, gave Benjamin a box of paints and brushes, several pieces of canvas, and six engravings by Grevling. Thus equipped, he started upon his career. West's earliest patron was Mr. Wayne, the father of General Anthony Wayne, who fancied a half dozen heads in chalk drawn by him and gave him six dollars for them. In re- lating this experience in after years, when he was living the life of a successful artist in London, West said that he was so much pleased with the large price brought by these early efforts that he then and there decided to adopt art as a profession. Among West's early American portraits are those of Judge and Mrs. William Henry, of Lancaster; of Mr. Peter Bard and Mrs. Dinah Bard, of New Jersey, and of Miss Jenny Galloway, who 40 HEIRLOOMS IN MINIATURES afterwards married Joseph Shippen, of Phila- delphia. If Byron wrote, with fine scorn, " The dotard West, Europe's worst daub, poor England's best," there was at least one poet in his own country who sang his praises in no stinted measure. In the American Magazine, February, 1758, are some verses upon the portrait of a young lady by Benjamin West, which the editor introduces **with particular pleasure, when we consider that the lady who sat, the painter who guided the pencil, and the poet who so well described the whole are all natives of this place and very young."* Unfortunately, the name of the fair lady is not given, but the writer of the verses, who signs himself Lovelace,'' is undoubtedly Francis Hopkin- son, who in his riper years was known as one of the most charming writers of his time. " The easy attitude, the graceful dress, The soft expression of the perfect whole, Both Guidons judgment and his skill confess, Informing canvas with a living soul," wrote Mr. Francis Hopkinson, although most observers find the ** living soul'* as well as the ** easy grace" lacking in West's early work. * The ** place" referred to is Philadelphia, where this earliest of American magazines was published under the title of American Magazine and Monthly Chronicle for the British Colonies, 41 HEIRLOOMS IN MINIATURES A painting of the young poet's mother, Mrs. Thomas Hopkinson, is one of the best exam- ples of West's American portraiture. Minia- tures of Judge Hopkinson and his wife were also executed about the time that West was painting in Pennsylvania. Liike most of the American portraits of the period, they are un- signed, but a strong argument in favor of their being by Benjamin West is, that the treatment of the head in the miniature of Mrs. Thomas Hopkinson is similar to that in a well-authenti- cated portrait of her by West. Some minia- tures of LfOrd and Lady Stirling have been attributed to Benjamin West which are suffi- ciently stiff and wooden to have been the early work of an untrained hand. If by the Penn- sylvania artist, they must have been among his very earliest attempts at portrait painting. Dr. Smith, provost of the college at Philadel- phia; Mr. Kelly, of New York; Mr. Edward Shippen and Mr. William Allen, of Phila- delphia, and Mr. Izard, of South Carolina, were among the warm friends and patrons of Benjamin West, while the associates of his early years were Francis Hopkinson, Thomas Godfrey, Jacob Duche, and William White, afterwards Bishop of Pennsylvania. Charles Willson Peale in his diary says that it was Mr. Allen and Mr. Izard who invited Benjamin West to accompany them upon a trip to Italy. This invitation opened up rare opportunities to the young artist, who not only enjoyed the advantage of studying the great works of the 42 Judge and Mrs. Thomas Hopkinson Page 42 Mrs. Henry Pratt (Rebecca Claypocle) Page 69 HEIRLOOMS IN MINIATURES past, but, in consequence of his letters of in- troduction to Lord Grantham and others, met many persons of distinction in art, literature, and social life. Benjamin West had begun to use his brush without having learned to draw, and the Italians said of him, He came from we know not where, and he paints we know not how/' He afterwards went to Leghorn and took some lessons in color from Mengs, one of the greatest colorists of his time. Mr. Allen was always a warm friend of the young artist, and helped him with money more than once when he was in dire straits. Mr. Peale describes West as a handsome man with attractive man- ners, a great favorite with ladies. In Italy he met Angelica Kauffmann, whose beauty, talent, and the story of her romantic love affair with Sir Joshua Reynolds combined to render her one of the most interesting figures of her time. West studied several years in Italy. One of the anecdotes related of him while in Rome, is that during his master's absence from his studio he slyly painted a fly on the canvas upon which the artist was engaged. The master came in, resumed his work, and made several attempts to brush away the fly. At last he exclaimed, **Ah! it is that American.'' Although Benjamin West executed some por- traits in Philadelphia which are fairly good, in view of his youth and the limited opportunities for study which he had enjoyed, his great suc- cess as an artist came to him in London. 43 HEIRLOOMS IN MINIATURES Some of the tales told of the aspirations and struggles of the Quaker lad who was deter- mined to be a great painter may have helped to awaken an interest in West's work when he first established himself in London, and thus contributed to his speedy success. Its continuance was due to the young artist's industry, ability, and fortunate choice of subjects. England at that time possessed no leading historical painter,'' says Mr. Cun- ningham. ** He [Benjamin West] was intro- duced to Reynolds, and a letter from Mengs made him acquainted with Wilson. Inter- course with artists and an examination of their works awakened his ambition. He con- sulted no one, but took chambers in Bed- ford Street, Covent Garden, and set up his easel. When his determination was known, his brethren in art came round him in a body, welcomed him with much cordiality, and encouraged him to continue his career as an historical painter. Reynolds was de- voted to portraits ; Hogarth on the brink of the grave ; Barry engaged in controversies in Rome; Wilson neglected; Gainsborough's excellence lay in landscape;* and the prudent * Allan Cunningham seems to have overlooked the fact that Thomas Gainsborough painted even more portraits than landscapes. According to a recent estimate of his work, of the several hundred paintings executed by him more than one-half were portraits, among them some of the most beautiful in England, notably those of the Count- ess of Sussex, Mrs. Siddons, and the Hon. Mrs. Graham. 44 HEIRLOOMS IN MINIATURES American saw that he had a fair field and no opponents.*** One of the first, if not the very first, of West*s English paintings was a scene from the story of Pylades and Orestes, which, says one of the artist's biographers, attracted so much attention that his servant was em- ployed from morning until night opening the door to visitors. He received a considerable sum of money for showing the picture, while the poor artist who had painted it had to con- tent himself with empty praise. This picture was followed by ** Angelica and Medoro,*' Hector and Andromache,'* and a number of paintings from mythological scenes, which were succeeded by a series of representations of events from English history. These latter were painted under royal patronage, as were the large sacred paintings by which Benjamin West is best known in his own country, the most celebrated of which is Christ Healing the Sick.** This work, executed when the artist had passed his sixtieth year, was de- signed for the Pennsylvania Hospital. When exhibited in London, it attracted much atten- tion, and was purchased by the British Insti- tution for three thousand guineas. The artist was given permission to paint a replica for the hospital. The suggestion that the picture of Christ Healing the Sick'* should be given * Cunningham's " Lives of Painters, Sculptors, and Architects," vol. ii. page 28. 45 HEIRLOOMS IN MINIATURES to the Pennsylvania Hospital is said to have come from Mr. Joseph Wharton, a friend of Mr. West's, who was much in his company in London. Mr. Wharton was certainly deeply inter- ested in this project, and actively corresponded with the artist on the subject of the removal of the painting. A short time before his death he wrote to Mr. West of the prepara- tions that were being made for the reception of the picture by Mr. Samuel Coates, Mr. Sully, the artist, and himself. Mr. Wharton did not live to see the painting reach its des- tination. In a letter written to his daughter, Mrs. Jonathan Robeson, soon after her father's death, dated London, No. 14 Newman Street, Oxford Street, August 5, 1817, Mr. West says, after expressing his sympathy with Mrs. Robe- son upon the death of her father : By the same conveyance which this letter goes to you, in Philadelphia by the ship Elec- tra, Capt. Williams : I send the Picture of our Saviour receiving the Sick and Blind in the Temple to Heal them, for the Pennsyl- vania Hospital: what a real joy would this occurrence have afforded your venerable Father ; it being a work in one of the branches of the Fine Arts in which he took so lively an interest ; and for which I have in my Paper of Instructions to the President and Managers of the Hospital Registered his name— Nathaniel Falcknor's with my own, and that of Mrs. 46 HEIRLOOMS IN MINIATURES West, All mutual friends and Natives of Pennsylvania. These Names I always held in mind should be transmitted to subsequent ages with that Picture, for the lively interest they had for its being placed in the Pennsyl- vania Hospital With this letter I inclose a Medal, of one in copper your Father did me the honor to accept — and the present one is finished in a tasteful stile most fit for a Lady — and which I request you will honour me by giving it a place in your possession as a Token of that great respect for the Daughter of my friend Joseph Wharton, which this Medal will stand as a lasting Pledge amongst his Relatives, for my sincerity. ** And be assured My dear Madam, that I am most truely your greatly obliged Benjamin West. *'Mrs. Sarah Robeson." The story of the Quaker boy who had begun life in a farm-house in Pennsylvania rising to eminence in his chosen profession, painting noble and royal ladies and gentlemen, and be- coming the associate of the great and learned men of Great Britain and finally President of the Royal Academy, reads to-day like a fairy tale. According to all the canons of fairyland he should have married a princess clothed in silver gauze with gold slippers upon her feet. If, as we know. West failed to do this, his 47 HEIRLOOMS IN MINIATURES courtship was not lacking in romance, as the lady of his love ran away from a stern guardian and went to England to meet and marry her true lover like a royal bride. An account of the elopement of Benjamin West's bride, as related by Bishop White,* one of the actors in the little drama, has been preserved by one of Miss Shewell's American relatives, Mr. Thomas Shewell, of Bristol, Pennsylvania. Before the departure of Benjamin West for Italy,'* Mr. Thomas F. Shewell says, some love passages had taken place between the young people, for the merchant brother, Stephen Shewell, who was a very proud man, took a violent prejudice against Mr. West on his sister's account, calling him a 'pauper,' an 'object of charity,' etc. '* West remained two years in Italy, much to his advantage. As he was returning home through England in 1763, the King saw some of his paintings, which he much admired. ^ The Reverend William White, first Bishop of the American Episcopal Church, consecrated in Lambeth Palace, England, February 4, 1787. Born in 1747, young White was a lad of seventeen when he assisted at the elopement of Miss Shewell. A miniature portrait painted by Charles Willson Peale represents the future dignitary of the Church in powdered wig, a gay blue coat with a scarlet collar, and pale blue waistcoat. This miniature is said to have been painted before William White went to England in 1772 to be ordained. If this is the case, it is one of Charles Willson Peale's earliest miniatures. 48 The Right Reverend WilHam White By Charles Willson Peale Page 48 Admiral, Lord Rodney By John Singleton Copley Page 56 HEIRLOOMS IN MINIATURES and appointed him his painter and was his warm friend through life. Leigh Hunt, whose mother was a niece of Mrs. West, says that it was * well known that this artist enjoyed the confidence of his Majesty in no ordinary degree,' and describes their having had much pleasant conversation during the King's prolonged sittings.* Mr. West, not being able to leave England after his appointment, wrote to Miss Shewell that his father was coming to visit him in London, and would sail by a certain brig ; that if she would accompany him with her maid, they would be married on arrival, as they had been secretly engaged ever since his departure for Italy. Her brother got hold of this letter and locked her up in his room until the vessel should depart. *'As soon as this state of things became known to those friends of West who had advised him to go to Italy, they determined, in * Mary Shewell, daughter of Stephen Shewell, of Phila- delphia, met Isaac Hunt while he was studying at the College of Philadelphia, married him, and went to England to live. Leigh Hunt says that his parents resided some time under the hospitable roof of the Wests. He says that his mother and his great-aunt, Mrs. Benjamin West, were about the same age and very congenial, both being devoted to books. The poet describes his mother, whom he adored, as a brunette with fine eyes, a tall, lady-like person, with hair blacker than is seen in English growth. It was supposed that Anglo-Americans had already begun to exhibit the influence of climate in their appearance. — ** Autobiography of Leigh Hunt," vol. i. p. 29. 4 49 HEIRLOOMS IN MINIATURES the Bishop's words, * that Ben should have his wife •/ sending to Miss Shewell by her maid, concealed under her dress, a rope lad- der, with a note saying that they would cause the vessel to drop down to Chester, sixteen miles, to obviate suspicion, and that on a given evening they would have a car- riage round the corner at eleven o'clock at night, and if she could use the ladder to reach the ground they would safely convey her to Chester and put her on board the vessel. She got to the ground safely, and with her maid got into the carriage with two of the gentlemen, the other outside with the driver. The party did not reach the vessel until daylight (the roads were so bad). She safely arrived in London and was mar- ried." Mr. Shewell says that Bishop White re- lated this story during one of his last dioce- san visitations, about 1833, at the house of Dr. Joseph Swift, a cousin of Mrs. Ben- jamin West. During the whole course of the story the venerable Bishop spoke with great animation, and seemed to relish the adventure, saying, Ben deserved a good wife, and, old as I am, I am ready to do it again for two such worthy people.'* The other friends of West who assisted to smooth the rugged course of true love were Benja- min Franklin, then fifty-six years old, and Francis Hopkinson, who was about twenty- one. 50 HEIRLOOMS IN MINIATURES Mrs. Clement and other authorities speak of Matthew Pratt as having accompanied Miss Shewell upon her voyage to England. Bishop White does not mention Pratt as one of her escort, nor does the family nar- rator, Mr. Thomas F. Shewell. There is, however, no reason to doubt the statement that Matthew Pratt accompanied the bride- elect and that he gave her away at the wedding, which took place September 2, 1764, at St. Martin's-in-the-Strand, as the Pratts were family connections of Miss Shewell, and we know that Matthew went to England in 1764. While Benjamin West was dreaming dreams and painting pictures in Pennsylvania, and making a name for himself abroad, a still more remarkable artistic development was taking place in Boston. In the bare studios of Smi- bert, Blackburn, and Pelham, a boy destined to be far more distinguished than his teachers was making his first essay at limning **the human face divine." That Peter Pelham, an Englishman, who combined the vocations of painter, mezzotint engraver, and school teacher, made some impression upon the artistic facul- ties of his stepson, John Singleton Copley, is proved by the fact, that the latter at six- teen engraved a portrait of the Rev. William Welsteed, of Boston, which Mr. Whitmore says ** bears so plainly the mark of Pelham's style that we may be sure that it was to his stepfather that Copley owed much valuable 51 HEIRLOOMS IN MINIATURES rudimentary instruction/'* in which opinion the artist's biographer, Mr. Augustus Thorn- dyke Perkins, agrees. Young Copley did not stop long at engraving, as a portrait in oils of Dr. De Mountfort when a child, bearing the same date as the early engraving, is still extant. Mr. Perkins thinks that Copley owed much of the excellence of his earlier work to the in- fluence of Blackburn, especially in his drapery and detail in dress. He says that Blackburn's drapery is as good as Copley's, especially his white satins, and that both artists were in the habit of using as the lining of a dress, or as a drapery, a certain shade of mauve pink, which the older artist used feebly, while Copley dashed it in with the hand of a master. Mr. Perkins refers to the fine pictures of Joseph Allen and his wife and to those of the Cun- ningham family as excellent examples of the work of Blackburn. From these and other portraits, known to have been in Boston prior to 1772, it is evident that Copley had the advantage of studying more paintings than Benjamin West, as well as of better early instruction. That he profited by the advantages afforded him, a number of portraits painted before he left Boston fully ^ Mr. Charles H. Hart says that this engraving, made in i753» signed "J. S, Qo^X^y , pinxit et fecit,'' was printed for and sold by Stephen Whiting, at Ye Rose and Acorn, in Union Street, Boston. 52 HEIRLOOMS IN MINIATURES attest. Whatever may be said in disparage- ment of Copley's style, — and his warmest ad- mirers are willing to admit that, with a certain charm of individuality that his portraits possess, many of them lack warmth, feeling, grace, and sentiment, — there are, even among his earlier portraits, a number which do not exhibit these shortcomings in any marked degree. Among the best examples of the artist's American work are the portraits of Lady Wentworth, Mrs. Samuel AUyne Otis, and Mrs. Edward Per- kins, of Boston, the two former representing the beauty of youth, the latter the thoughtful charm of old age. In his treatment of mate- rials and his arrangement of draperies, Copley was especially happy. His women, veritable grandes dames whether living in England or in America, are habited in genuine satins, bro- cades, and laces, which they wear with a dignity that becomes their high estate. In 1754 an ambitious attempt at allegorical painting engaged the brush of Copley, which foreshadowed his later essays at allegorical and historical painting in England, such as the large canvases representing **The Red Cross Knight,'' Holiness, Faith, and Hope," which virtues are represented by the artist's children in their early youth, Charles I. signing the Death-Warrant of Strafford," **The Siege of Gibraltar," ''The Death of Lord Chatham," and ''The Three Princesses." Several of Copley's large canvases are at the Art Mu- seum in Boston : the celebrated picture of " A 53 HEIRLOOMS IN MINIATURES Youth Rescued from a Shark;'** Speaker Lenthall delivering himself of his celebrated period when refusing to comply with the de- mand of King Charles, * I have, Sire, neither eyes to see nor tongue to speak in this place but as the House is pleased to direct me whose servant I am here,' etc. This picture, which is considered an excellent example of the artist's work in composition, characteri- zation, and conception, is the one that drew from staunch Queen Charlotte the severe criti- cism. You have chosen, Mr. Copley, a most unfortunate subject for the exercise of your pencil." **It is," says one of Copley's biographers, "rather an interesting coincidence that Mr. Copley should have painted this Puritan pict- ure in 1791, when Puritanism was not popular in England, and that it should have been trans- ferred from the gallery of a Tory Chancellor to decorate the free library of a city founded by the Puritans who that day met and foiled their King." This picture was some years since presented to the Boston Public Library, while * The youth in the painting is Brook Watson, afterwards Lord Mayor of London. He crossed the Atlantic with Mr. Copley in 1774. Mr. Watson, then a man in the prime of life, related to the artist the remarkable circumstance of his rescue from the jaws of a shark when a boy of fourteen. The graphic recital made so strong an impression upon Copley's mind that he painted the celebrated picture of " A Youth Rescued from a Shark" from his recollection of Mr. Watson's description of the scene. 54 HEIRLOOMS IN MINIATURES another canvas now in Boston is the charming Family Picture/' Although Copley's best work, and that to which he now owes his high position in the history and development of American art, is in the line of portrait painting, he early and late executed some miniatures. An in- teresting miniature, painted about 1770, is that of James Bowdoin, afterwards Governor of Massachusetts, who distinguished himself by the ability and courage which he showed in suppressing Shays's Rebellion. Governor Bowdoin's daughter Elizabeth, who married Sir John Temple, Bart., was one of the beau- ties of the first administration. Her noble and attractive face has come down to this genera- tion in a crayon portrait by Copley. He also painted miniatures of Mr. and Mrs. Samuel Cary and of his half-brother, Henry Pelham, who is the boy in the celebrated picture of **The Boy and the Flying Squirrel,'* which first brought the artist into notice.* Another " Henry Pelham*s name appears in the Catalogue of the Royal Academy of 1778 as an exhibitor of the following works ; * The Finding of Moses,' < A Portrait of a Lady/ in miniature, * A Portrait of a Gentleman,' also in miniature ; again the next year, of * A Frame with four Miniatures, two in water-color, two in enamel,' — all beautifully painted. A particularly interesting character in his youth, handsome and talented to a rare degree, Pelham subsequently went to Ireland and became agent for Lord Lansdowne's estates in that country ; there he married, as we learn by Mr. Singleton's letter, a Miss Butler, by whom he had twin 55 HEIRLOOMS IN MINIATURES example of Copley's miniature work is a fine portrait of Sir John St. Clair, now owned by the Historical Society of Pennsylvania. He also painted a miniature of George Brydges, Lord Rodney,* a distinguished naval com- mander in the English service. Rodney served under Admiral Boscawen at the taking of Louisburg, commanded at the successful bom- bardment of Havre and at the reduction of Martinique, after which he was, in 1762, pro- moted to the rank of vice-admiral, and created a baronet in 1764. For his victory gained in 1782 over the Comte de Grasse, Rodney was sons. The family letters give some later information about him. He abandoned painting to his more persevering and gifted brother. Of one of his sons we know nothing, but, according to Mrs. Copley, the other received an appoint- ment under the British Crown early in this century in the West Indies, where he died soon after his arrival." — "John Singleton Copley, His Domestic and Artistic Life," by Martha Babcock Amory. * The Rodney family which settled in Delaware was de- scended from an ancestor of Lord Rodney. William Rod- ney, who came to America in 1682, was the son of William Rodney, who married Alice Caesar, daughter of Sir Thomas Caesar, Baron of the Exchequer. Edward, George, and William (who married Alice Caesar) were brothers. Ed- ward broke the entail in favor of his daughters, and his family is now represented by the Duke of Buckingham. George was the ancestor of Admiral Rodney and of the present Lord Rodney. William's son William came to America and became the ancestor of the Delaware Rodneys, which family numbered among its members Caesar Rod- ney, a signer of the Declaration, member of the Continental Congress, and President of his native State. 56 HEIRLOOMS IN MINIATURES raised to the peerage and granted a pension of two thousand pounds per annum. A miniature of an American beauty, which Copley probably painted in England, is that of Miss Eliza Hunter, of Newport, as she and her sister were abroad in 1784. This lady, who, like Miss Peggy Champlin, was a great belle among the French officers in Newport, never married. Her sisters, Katharine and Ann, married abroad. Ann married John Fal- connet, a Swiss banker, and Katharine, whose lovely miniature is still preserved in the family, became the wife of the Count de Carignan. Copley, like Benjamin West, was most fortu- nate in his marriage. His wife was Susannah Farnum, daughter of Richard Clarke, a wealthy merchant of Boston. Mrs. Copley was de- scended through her mother, Elizabeth Wins- low, from Mary Chilton, the first woman who stepped from the Mayflower upon the New England shore. Mrs. Amory, a granddaughter of this couple, says that Mrs. Copley pos- sessed much personal loveliness, especially the high forehead and finely arched brow so dear to the artist. Her character was in harmony with her person. She appears to have been one of those rare women in whom the moral and mental qualities, joined to deep sensibility, are so nicely balanced that they exert the hap- piest influence over the home circle, cheering and enlivening without dazzling it. **The tie between the artist and his wife was peculiarly close. We constantly meet her 57 HEIRLOOMS IN MINIATURES familiar lineaments through the whole course of Copley's works,— now Mary by the manger, with the divine Infant at her breast, in ' The Nativity;' again in * The Family Picture,' his chef d' (euvre in portraiture." A charming portrait of Mrs. Copley is the one to be found in this latter picture, which, being a large canvas, exhibits some of Cop- ley's best composition, and possesses, as Mrs. Amory says, a warmth and beauty of senti- ment, especially in the mother and children, of which no mere description can give any adequate idea. Unlike most young artists, Copley, in conse- quence of his rapid success, and perhaps through the generosity of his father-in-law, was able to indulge his taste for elegant sur- roundings. John Trumbull, who visited the artist in his home in 1772, wrote : His house was on the Common, where Mr. Sears's elegant granite palazzo now stands. A mutual friend of Mr. Copley and my brother, Mr. James Lovell, went with us to introduce us. We found Mr. Copley dressed to receive a party of friends at dinner. I remember his dress and appearance, — an elegant-looking man, dressed in a fine maroon cloth with gilt buttons — this was dazzling to my unpracticed eye ! — But his paintings, the first I had ever seen deserving the name, riveted, absorbed, my attention, and renewed all my desire to enter upon such a pursuit." Copley may have derived his love of color, 58 HEIRLOOMS IN MINIATURES rich textures, and handsome appointments from some English ancestor, or perhaps he owed these tastes to some French strain in his blood. There was little in the New England life of that day to encourage a love of beauty or grace, yet this hard-working, painstaking artist, in this uncongenial atmosphere, developed a side of his nature that turned to the beauti- ful as flowers turn towards the sun. The re- straints and limitations of the life around him must have pressed hard against the exuberance of his artistic nature ; and in old age, when re- calling the scenes of his youth, Copley would ask Americans whom he met whether *'more liberty of conscience than of limb was still permitted in New England,'* relating to his amused auditors his own experience of being taken in custody by one of the selectmen'* of Boston for breaking the Sabbath to the extent of taking a stroll into the country on a fine Sunday morning in the spring. Of her grand- father's inborn love of beauty in dress and sur- roundings Mrs. Amory writes : *'It seemed as if the eye of the master de- lighted to dwell on the rich draperies and soft laces he so well knew how to bring out on his canvas, and which he thoroughly studied in all their combinations and arrangements. The beautiful costumes which we admire to-day in some of the stately portraits of our grand- mothers' times were the result of his com- bined taste and study. He had theories and principles about female attire that were carried 59 HEIRLOOMS IN MINIATURES out with a scrupulous elaboration whose effect heightened the charm of the picture. The rose, the jewel in the hair, the string of pearls around the throat, were no accidental arrange- ments, but according to principles of taste, which he thoroughly understood. The hair, ornamented in harmony with the full dress of the period; the fall of lace, shading the round- ness and curve of the arm, were perhaps un- important details in themselves, but conducing by their nice adjustment to the harmonious effect of the composition. Added to these, he delighted to place his subject among kindred scenes ; sometimes we catch a glimpse in the distance of garden or mansion, or at others of the fountain and the grove, the squirrel, — that favorite of his brush, — the bird, and the spaniel, — all treated with equal grace and felicity. His male portraits have a severer dignity and gravity, as beseemed the sex. Happily for his taste, rich and brilliant velvets, satins and embroidery, point-lace cuffs and frills, had not in his day been forced to yield to broadcloth and beaver. The art of the coiffeur and the dignity of powder and wig — even rouge, it is whispered — left their trace on some of the statelier forms of the Colonial Court. At that epoch the love of dress was not accounted a weakness and confined to the female sex ; we have only to consult the pages of the gossiping Boswell to learn, among other in- stances, the emotions of pride and pleasure with which the heart of the genial Goldsmith 60 HEIRLOOMS IN MINIATURES swelled beneath the folds of his peach-bloom velvets.'* In writing to his wife from Genoa in 1774, Mr. Copley reveals not only the taste for rich materials of which Mrs. Amory speaks, but also an exceedingly practical turn of mind and an almost feminine delight in securing a bargain in foreign silks and velvets. I judged it best/' he says, to take advan- tage of so good an opportunity, and purchased a suit of clothes for the winter which I can send to Rome conveniently from here. Per- haps it may amuse you should I inform you what I have bought. I will tell you, then. I have as much black velvet as will make a suit of clothes. For this I gave about five guineas, and about two more for as much crimson satin as will line it. This is the taste throughout Tuscany; and to-day I bought some lace ruffles and silk stockings. I cannot but wonder how cheap silks are in this city ; the velvet and satin, for which I gave seven guineas, would have cost fourteen in London. . . . You see how I spend my money, but it is necessary to attend to dress and not unpleasing when business does not interfere. I hope ere long to see some returns for the money I now spend. **I believe you will think I have become a *beau' to dress in so rich a suit of clothes, and truly I am a little tinctured; but you must remember that you thought I was too careless about my dress. I wish to reform 6z HEIRLOOMS IN MINIATURES from all my errors, and particularly from those that are the most painful to you. I have your happiness so much at heart, I would do any- thing to give you pleasure/' Mrs. Copley did not accompany her husband when he went abroad to study in 1774, but set sail the following year with her little family. Her father, Mr. Richard Clarke, whose tea,*' as Mr. Perkins remarks, had so recently been mixed with the water of Boston harbor,*' was one of the party. Although John Singleton Copley was the senior of Benjamin West by one year, the younger artist was, in consequence of his rapid success and influential circle of friends, in a position to help his compatriot when he reached London. This aid West promptly bestowed, a royal generosity of nature being a distinguishing trait of the Quaker painter. No brother artist — no American, indeed — failed to meet with a warm welcome from the Wests. Francis Hopkinson, in his letters to his family written from London, gives charming pictures of the artist's home, presided over by lovely, gracious Mrs. West, who was always Ameri- can at heart, although she was destined never again to behold her native land. Gilbert Stuart, in speaking to Mr. Charles Eraser, of Charleston, of the manner in which he had been received by West, said that he was welcomed with true benevolence, encouraged, and taken into the family of his master, and that nothing could exceed the attentions of 62 HEIRLOOMS IN MINIATURES the artist to him; they were/' he said, paternal/' One of the most interesting descriptions of the Wests in England is to be found in the diary of Mr. Samuel Shoemaker, a prominent Philadelphia loyalist. Mr. Shoemaker's notes were made for the entertainment of his wife, who remained in America, and their personal and naive character add to their interest. Mr. Shoemaker had, upon the evacuation of Phila- delphia by the British, accompanied the army to New York, whence he sailed for England in 1783. Under the circumstances, it is not remarkable that the American gentleman was received by George III. with what he con- sidered great distinction. Of this interview with the King, Mr. Shoemaker writes : **This morning at eight o'clock my son ac- companied B. West's wife to the King's Chap- pel, where he had the opportunity of seeing the King and several of the Princesses. They returned before nine, when we were enter- tained with breakfast, at which we had the Company of Mr. Poggy,* the Italian Gentle- man, Mr. Trumble,f Mr. Farrington, and * Antonio di Poggi, an Italian artist. Mr. Trumbull met Di Poggi in London in 1785 and speaks of him as an artist and draughtsman of superior talents, who had recently commenced the business of publishing. He afterwards engraved a number of Trumbull's paintings. t This is Colonel John Trumbull, the artist, who was studying with Benjamin West, as was Mr. Farrington, a distinguished landscape painter. 63 HEIRLOOMS IN MINIATURES West's two sons. About ten my son ac- companied Farrington, Trumble, and West's eldest son in a Ride through Windsor Forrest, having first been with West and I to his Room in the Castle to see a picture of the Lord's Supper which he had just finished for the King's Chappel. After part of our Company were gone to take their ride, West informed me that the King had ordered him to attend at his Painting Room in the Castle at one o'clock, when the King and Queen and some of the Princesses, on their return from Chappel, in- tended to call to see the Painting of the Lord's Supper which he had just finished, and West told me it would be a very proper time and Opportunity for me to see the King, Queen, and the rest of the family, as they came from the Chappel, and therefore requested me to accompany him and his wife and the Italian Gentleman, and walk at the Castle near the Chappel till service was over, when he must repair to his room to attend the King, and would leave me with his wife in a proper station to have a full view of the King and family. . . . Accordingly, a little before one o'clock. West and his wife, the Italian Gentleman, and I walked up to the Castle and there continued walking about till the clock struck One, when we observed one of the Pages coming from the Chappel. West then said he must leave us ; presently after this two coaches passed and went round towards the door of the 64 HEIRLOOMS IfJ MINIATURES Castle leading to West's room. In these two coaches were the Queen and Princesses ; pres- ently after the King appeared, attended by his Equery only, and walked in great haste, almost ran, to meet the coaches at the door of the Castle above mentioned, which he reached just as the coaches got there, as did West's wife, the Italian Gentleman, and I, when we saw the King go to the door of the Coach in which the Queen was, and heard him say, * I have got here in time,' and then handed the Queen out and up the steps, into the Castle — the Princess Royal, Princess Elizabeth, Prin- cess Mary, and Princess Sophia, with Colonel Goldsworthy, the King's Equery, the Hano- verian Resident, and Miss Goldsworthy, sub Governess to the two young Princesses, fol- lowed. They all went into the Castle, when I heard the King say, 'tell him to come in,' but little did I think I was the Person meant, and West's wife, the Italian Gentleman, and I were about going off, when West came out of the Castle and told me the King had ordered him to come out and bring me and Mrs. West in. . . . Flattered and embarrassed thou may suppose, on my entering the room, the King came up close to me, and very graciously said, ' Mr. S., you are well known here, everybody knows you,' etc. (complimentary, which I can't mention). He then turned to the Queen, the Princesses, etc., who stood close by, and re- peated, * Mr. S.' I then made my bow to the Queen, then to the Princess Royal, to the 5 65 HEIRLOOMS IN MINIATURES Princess Eliza., Princesses Mary and Sophia. The Queen and each of the Princesses were pleased to drop a Courtesy, and then the Queen was pleased to ask me one or two Questions. . . . "After being,'* as he says, "graciously in- dulged with the opportunity of conversing with the King and Queen, and being in the same room with them three quarters of an hour,*' Mr. Shoemaker came to the conclusion that the Queen was " a charming woman, and if not a beauty, her manners and disposition are so pleasing that no Person who has the Oppor- tunity that I have had can avoid being charmed with the sweetness of her disposition.'* Mr. Shoemaker pronounced the King "a man of great benevolence, without one grain of tyranny in his composition," in which opinion he was probably seconded by the Wests, as George III. had always been a warm friend of the artist. The royal function being over, Mr. Shoemaker returned to the Wests* home, where he was "entertained with a genteel Dinner.** Charles R. Leslie was much in Mr. West*s studio when in London, and had the benefit of the criticism of the veteran artist, copied some of his pictures, and heard him lecture. In one of his letters to his sister he speaks of copying West*s "Arethusa Bathing,** and of painting the artist*s portrait. In another letter he describes the ceremonies attending the burial of Benjamin West : 66 HEIRLOOMS IN MINIATURES ** I suppose you will have received the account that was published in the papers of the funeral of Mr. West. It was arranged, I believe, exactly on the plan of that of Sir Joshua Reynolds. An apartment on the ground floor of the Academy was hung and carpeted with black, the daylight entirely excluded, and the room lighted by a number of tall, wax candles, placed at regular dis- tances on the floor, around the coffin, which was covered by a pall and lid of black feathers. Against the wall, at the head of the corpse, hung the hatchment bearing the family arms. No one remained in the room excepting Robert, Mr. West's old servant, who had sat up there all the preceding night. My feelings were greatly aff"ected by this scene. The company who were to attend the funeral assembled in a large upper room, where they were provided with black silk scarfs and hat- bands, the Academicians wearing long black cloaks. It was interesting to see persons of different ranks and of different sentiments meeting on this occasion and uniting in the last tribute of respect to a man of genius. The service was performed by Dr. Wellesley, brother to the Duke of Wellington. In one part of it a very beautiful anthem was sung by the boys of the choir. . . . When the service was finished I went down into the crypt beneath the church and saw the coffin lowered into the grave. I was not aware at the time that the tombs of Sir Joshua, Opie, 67 HEIRLOOMS IN MINIATURES and Barry, and Sir Christopher Wren, were all near the same place. The crowd of persons assembled covered them/' More touching even than these impressive tributes to the venerable American artist were the simple words spoken by his servant to Con- stable, who called at Benjamin West's house the day after his death. Ah, sir ! where will they go now said he, referring to the younger artists, to whom the studio of the master had always been open, and at whose table there were always a cover and a welcome. Matthew Pratt, a Philadelphia artist of con- siderable ability, was four years the senior of Benjamin West, although he did not come into notice until some time after the latter had won distinction abroad.* Matthew Pratt has recorded of himself that his early inclination for drawing was fostered by his mother's brother, James Claypoole, to whom he was apprenticed at the age of fifteen and from whom, he says, *'I learned all the different branches of the painting business, particularly portrait painting, which was my favorite study from ten years of age." f * Matthew Pratt, through his mother, belonged to the Claypoole family of Philadelphia, which has so frequently and erroneously been spoken of as descended from Oliver Cromwell. The American Claypooles are descended from James Claypoole, who came to Pennsylvania in 1683, whose brother John married Elizabeth Cromwell, the much loved daughter of the stern leader of the great English rebellion. f Dunlap's ** History of the Arts of Design." 68 HEIRLOOMS IN MINIATURES An attractive miniature of Rebecca Clay- poole Pratt, the mother of Matthew Pratt, is preserved by a member of the family. The subject of this miniature was born in 1711, and the rounded, youthful appearance of the face precludes any supposition that it was painted by Matthew Pratt, whose work belongs to a later period than that in which his mother's miniature was executed. It may have been the work of some early Philadelphia painter, or of some artist who visited that city, as Mrs. Pratt was never abroad. This miniature, which affords an interesting example of Colonial art, may have been painted by Rebecca Pratt's brother, James Claypoole, who, as Mr. Charles Henry Hart says, could have been no mean painter to have trained Matthew Pratt so well." Of James Claypoole as an artist we know little. He is spoken of as limner and painter in general.'* Dunlap says that he was painting in Philadelphia in 1756.* That he was a man greatly respected in the community may be gathered from the fact that he held the office of Sheriff of Philadelphia for some years. Matthew Pratt was abroad twice, once in 1764 and again in 1778, when he made a short visit to Ireland and painted a full-length portrait of Archdeacon Mann, of Dublin, in Mr. Peale states in his diary that James Claypoole left Philadelphia with the intention of joining Benjamin West in London, and that he stopped at Jamaica, where he spent the remainder of his days. 69 HEIRLOOMS IN MINIATURES his robes. During Mr. Pratt's first visit to England, he studied for more than a year with Benjamin West. It may have been during this time that he executed his picture of The London School of Artists," or The American School,*' as it is now called, which represents West surrounded by his pupils, Matthew Pratt among them. ''This picture," says Mr. Thomas Sully, ''was so well executed that I have always thought it was a copy from West." Edward Edwards in his "Anecdotes of Painters" says of Pratt: "He came to Lon- don in the year 1764 and stayed here about two years, during which time he resided chiefly with his countryman, Mr. West. In 1765 he was an exhibitor at the room in Spring-garden, and again in the year following. The last picture which he exhibited was entitled ' The American School.' It consisted of small whole- length figures, which were the portraits of himself, Mr. West, and some others of their countrymen, whose names are unknown to the author." " The picture," says Mr. Hart, "is extremely well executed, and shows the precision of no tyro hand. The arrangement is good and the color harmonious and delicately handled. Pratt's own figure seems somewhat out of proportion, which is easily accounted for by the difficulty of painting one's self; but the middle group of the two boys at the table with the antique bust before them and arras back- ground is a charming bit of work. When we 70 HEIRLOOMS IN MINIATURES recall that this picture was painted one hun- dred and thirty years ago by an American who had had less than a year's study in London, we think we are justified not only in calling it * a very remarkable picture/ but in claiming for it a high place in art and in the history of American art." * From London Mr. Pratt went to Bristol, where he painted for eighteen months, when he returned to Philadelphia and established himself as a portrait painter. Matthew Pratt's biographer claims for him the distinction of having painted the earliest of the numerous portraits of Benjamin Frank- lin. Among his later portraits are those of James Hamilton, of Philadelphia, and Cad- wallader Colden, of New York. For this latter portrait, which was ordered for the Chamber of Commerce, the artist received thirty-seven pounds, a large sum in those days. Matthew Pratt also painted a portrait of himself, which is not only well done, but represents him as a singularly handsome man. A curious commentary upon American art at this period is to be found in the fact that Matthew Pratt was better known as the painter of some very excellent signs than as a portrait painter. Of these signs, many of which showed the hand of a true artist, Mr. ^ Through the generosity of Mr. S. P. Avery, of New York, this painting of " The American School" has been placed in the Metropolitan Museum of Art. 71 HEIRLOOMS IN MINIATURES Dunlap says: ''Amongst these, perhaps the best was a representation of a cock in a barn- yard, which for many years graced a beer- house in Spruce-Street ; the execution of this was so fine, and the expression of nature so exactly copied, that it was evident to the most casual observer that it was painted by the hand of a master. Most of our old citizens recol- lect the sign of the grand Convention of 1788,^ which was the first raised at the corner of Fourth and Chestnut Streets. On this piece Mr. Pratt gave portraits of most of the dis- tinguished men assembled on that occasion, and for some time the streets were filled with crowds occupied in identifying likenesses." Mr. Peale in his recollections says: Pratt was in New York in the early months of the Revolution, and among other sketches made some of the fortifications put up by the British. He was observed while making these sketches and arrested for a spy. He pleaded innocence, and from his diary, which was found upon him, it was proved that he was an artist and that his sketches were in the cause of art. He was, of course, released.'' When Copley arrived in London, he, follow- ing in the footsteps of Benjamin West, devoted his time to large historical and allegorical work, although his talent, unlike West's, lay in the domain of individual portraiture. It seemed as ^ Mr. Dunlap evidently refers to the Convention of 1787, when the Constitution of the United States was framed. 72 HEIRLOOMS IN MINIATURES if Copley, who was a practical genius, turned his attention to the work for which there was the greatest demand. Mrs. Amory records that he often said, after his arrival in England, that he could not surpass some of his earlier paintings. Among the most beautiful of these is a large canvas of Colonel and Mrs. Lee, dated 1769, which belonged to the Tracy family, of Newburyport, and afterwards to General W. R. Lee, of Roxbury, Mass. A portrait of Mr. and Mrs. Ralph Izard, of South Carolina, which was painted by Copley in Rome in 1774, is another good example of his earlier work. The careers of Benjamin West and John Singleton Copley have been thus fully dwelt upon in this brief review of Colonial art be- cause they were so truly pioneers in American painting, gaining for it a place in the galleries of the Old World, and by their success leading others to enter the same field.* Whatever criticism may be made upon the paintings of these two artists, none can fail to admire the native enthusiasm, the persistency, the pa- tience, the faith in the ultimate triumph of art, and also, what is equally important, the faith in themselves, of these early American artists. It required no small amount of courage to adopt for their life-work a career that was looked upon then, and has been in much later ^ Charles Willson Peale, John Trumbull, Gilbert Stuart, and Joseph Wright all studied with Benjamin West in London. 73 HEIRLOOMS IN MINIATURES days regarded, as an elegant accomplishment, the amusement of a leisure hour, rather than as a serious profession. In proof of the small encouragement given to art as a profession, we find Halpine, who painted in Newport in 1773, advertising himself as a portrait, herald, and sign painter, while Smibert, who began life as a house painter, executed coats-of-arms as well as likenesses. Samuel King, who in- structed both AUston and Malbone, made and sold mathematical instruments when not oc- cupied with sitters, while in a Philadelphia paper, some years later, we find the following composite advertisement : "MINIATURE PAINTING. " By John Walters, who is removed to the Home of Mr. Mason, Upholsterer, in Chestnut between Front and Second-Streets. The attention the subscriber has always paid to his employees, the proficiency he has attained in the art he professes, joined to his (really) moderate charge, he hopes will procure him a continuance of the favors of the Public. His price is from 3 dollars to one guinea. Hair work faithfully done in the most elegant manner, at a reasonable rate ; lockets, rings, hair-pins, and other articles in the jewelry way, at a much lower rate than those imported. '*JOHN Walters/'* ^ The Pennsylvania Packet and General Advertiser^ Tuesday, July 20, 1784. 74 Mrs. John Craig Page 75 \ HEIRLOOMS IN MINIATURES It is to be regretted that such American artists as Benjamin West and John Singleton Copley, instead of devoting their mature powers to mythological subjects and to great canvases representing scenes from ancient and modern history, did not turn their atten- tion to some familiar phase of Colonial life. Some simple domestic scene — a Puritan wed- ding, a Quaker courtship, or a Knickerbocker festival — would be of great value to-day, not only as a work of art, but for the insight it would give us into the life and characteristics of those early settlers of whom we know so little and of whom we would know so much. Of Colonial portraits there are many, Copley's contributions to the gallery of purely American work being a large one ; while those of West, Peale, and the Hesseliuses, although less nu- merous, are considerable. The miniatures of the same period are few and far between. Many of these precious heirlooms, preserved in old families, were doubtless executed abroad, or by foreign artists who visited the Colonies. The fact that they are usually unsigned and undated makes it difficult to classify them. This is the case with an interesting minia- ture preserved in the Biddle family of their ancestress Mrs. John Craig, a graceful and accomplished Irish girl, whom Mr. John Craig met and married during a visit to the island of Tobago in the West Indies in 1780. This lady, Margaret M. Craig, was a daughter of Mr. Charles Craig, of Dublin and of Donovan, 75 HEIRLOOMS IN MINIATURES Ireland, and was not related to the Philadel- phia family of Craig, to which her husband belonged, which was of Scotch origin. Edu- cated abroad, Mrs. Craig was an excellent French scholar, and during her life in Phila- delphia her house was a constant resort of the French officers who were in America during the latter years of the Revolution, and of the many French emigrants of education and rank who found their way to America in the next decade. Although not equal in merit to the larger portraiture of the time, the few American miniatures that have come down to us pos- sess a quaint attractiveness of their own, and are interesting as early examples of an art which was being carried to such perfection by Richard Cosway in England, and was destined later to gain distinction at the hands of the Peales, Malbone, and Eraser in America. 76 HEIRLOOMS IN MINIATURES CHAPTER III. SOME ARTISTS OF THE REVOLUTION THE Revolutionary period was a pro- ductive one in portraits and minia- tures, perhaps because in those eventful years soldiership and statesmanship brought many men into prominence who in a quieter time would not have risen to sufficient importance in their own estimation or that of others to have their portraits painted. Charles Willson Peale belongs to the Colonial as well as to the Revolutionary period of American art ; but as he attained his greatest success during the eight years of the war, it seems natural to classify him with the artists of the Revolution. Among these he was a leader, and in the field from first to last, often literally, as he painted a number of miniatures in camp. Of the soldiers and statesmen of the new era Mr. Peale painted many portraits, those of Washington being the most numerous, beginning in 1772 with the celebrated three- quarter length of the young Virginia Colonel, and reaching down to a short time before his death. The last of Peale's original portraits of Washington seems to have been the one executed in 1795, when the General was sixty- three years of age. 77 HEIRLOOMS IN MINIATURES Between 1772 and 1795, in addition to his many portraits in oil, Mr. Peale painted a number of miniatures of the Commander- in-Chief. A miniature frequently attributed to Copley is a rather youthful head of Gene- ral Washington, an engraving of which by J. De Mare appears in Irving's Life of Washington.*' The original is now in the Huntingdon Collection at the Metropolitan Museum in New York, and was pronounced by Mr. William S. Baker, of Philadelphia, a Charles Willson Peale miniature, painted in 1777. This miniature was inscribed, Wash- ington at the Age of Twenty-five," and this un- authorized statement, says Mr. Charles Henry Hart, *'laid the foundation for the assump- tion that it was painted in Boston in 1755 by Copley, then at the mature age of eighteen. It is curiously youthful in appearance for a man of forty-five, but it must be remembered that Washington wore a youthful visage, and that miniatures discount at least a decade from a man's years." Mr. Peale painted a miniature of Washing- ton in the autumn of 1777, as he wrote in 1779 to Mr. Edmond Jennings, then in Paris: **I send you a copy in miniature of our worthy General, which I took on the march to the battle of Germantown. The likeness is some- thing different from that which his Excellency, Lieutenant Gerard, carries for the King, but I have no doubt you will find many who will know it at first sight." 78 HEIRLOOMS IN MINIATURES This miniature, sent to Mr. Jennings, was probably a replica of the one so often attributed to Copley. Another of Mr. Peale's miniatures of Wash- ington was painted in a farm-house in New Jersey. During the sitting, the General re- ceived a letter announcing the surrender of Burgoyne. This is related by Rembrandt Peale as occurring while Mr. Peale was in the army as a captain of volunteers: Mr. Peale had his table and chair near the window, and Washington was sitting on the side of a bed, the room being too small for another chair. His aide-de-camp, Colonel Tilghman, was present. It was an interesting moment, but the sitting was continued, as the miniature was intended for Mrs. Washington." Several of Peale's miniatures of the General were painted for his wife, some of them to be worn in bracelets. Mrs. Washington wrote to Mr. Peale from New Windsor in 1780: ''I send my miniature pictures to you and request the favor of you to get them set for me. I would have them as bracelets to wear round the wrists. ... I would have the three pictures set exactly alike, and all the same size. If you have no crystals yourself, if they can be had in the city, I beg you to get them for me." In reply to this request Mr. Peale wrote : Dr Madam, — The Jeweler promises me to have the bracelets done in a few days. I have begged him to take the utmost pains to set 79 HEIRLOOMS IN MINIATURES them neatly. As no foreign glasses were to be had, I have moulded some of the best glass I could find and got a Lapidary to polish them, which I hope will not be inferior to those made abroad. I have cut the Pictures to one size, and mean to go a little further than you are pleased to direct, — that is, to have spare loop- holes for occasional use as a Locket, — and the additional expense is inconsiderable. Respectfully yours, C. W. Peale. <