Portrait of a Woman 1805 - 1815

This "Portrait of a Woman," held at the Met, is an exquisite miniature, likely made in the late 1700s by an anonymous artist. It's painted on ivory, a precious material in its own right, using watercolor. Think about the labor involved in this tiny, perfect portrait! The ivory would have been painstakingly prepared, its surface made receptive to the delicate washes of color. The artist would have used the finest brushes, perhaps just a few hairs wide, to capture the woman’s likeness. We can imagine the sitter, perhaps a member of the rising middle class, commissioning this work as a token of her identity. The silver frame adds to the preciousness of the object; it is so small it would have likely been worn as a pendant. Miniatures like these were luxury items. They were declarations of status, and intimate keepsakes that could be passed down through generations. By considering the materials and the making, we can appreciate this portrait not just as a picture, but as a tangible piece of social history.