Description:
Portrait miniature of Joseph Nichols Gage attributed to Rufus Porter; frontal facing portrait of a young man, he wears a dark gray coat, with a black vest and cravat, and white shirt, his face sports long sideburns and his dark brown hair has a tuft sticking up in the center, the top and left side of the image is stamped with the ink inscription, "MR JOSEPH.N. GAGE." The portrait is shown in a molded gilt frame. By the 1830s, Porter’s style had evolved further still. He began to favor frontal poses and to use stippling and cross-hatching for modeling, resulting in an overall effect that is more graphic than sculptural. Judging by the scarcity of known miniatures from his later period, his output in this genre had dropped significantly. Perhaps he was already anticipating that the art of miniature painting would soon be made obsolete by advances in still photography.
Label Text:
Joseph Nichols Gage, a trader from Merrimack, New Hampshire, and Jane Noyes, his second wife, are Porter’s last known portraits of identified sitters and likely date to the time of their 1837 marriage. The printed names on the sheets are uncommon.
Building a Collection, September 27, 2025-February 23, 2025: As one component of his multifaceted career, Rufus Porter completed a large number of portraiture miniatures, beginning roughly in about 1815 and continuing up to the advent of photography. Several sitters in this recent donation of over 20 portrait miniatures from Juliene and Carl M. Lindberg include identifiable New Englanders, including the Plummer family of Haverhill, MA, the Flagg family of Andover, MA, and the Gages of Merrimack, NH, and Lawrence, MA. As an itinerant artist traveling across New England, Porter offered profile and miniature portraits of sitters. Compared to ivory portrait miniatures, these works utilize the inexpensive materials of paper and watercolor. Portrait miniatures in early America were readily available to middle class clients, and Porter’s work fit the market for rising middle-class New Englanders seeking likenesses. He would often advertise in local newspapers and note the length of his stay in the respective town. Porter’s attention to minute details in his portraits include the depiction of individual eyelashes and hairs. With an interest in science and technology, he likely used mechanical devices to aid in the creation of his portraits, such as a camera obscura to trace the profile of his sitter and rapidly produce silhouettes.
Link to share this object record:
https://museums.fivecolleges.edu/detail.php?t=objects&type=ext&id_number=HD+2023.8.19 |
