Description:
Miniature portrait in profile of Martha Swan Flagg, daughter of Timothy and Hannah Flagg, she faces right, she has medium brown eyes and brown hair pulled back and fixed with a blue ribbon and braid, she wears a coral necklace and a light blue dress with the suggestion of a stippled pattern or texture. Rufus Porter's exacting style animates Martha’s blue dress, delicate hair ribbon, and coral necklace.
Label Text:
Bowdoin College Museum of Art, Rufus Porter’s Curious World: Art and Invention in America, 1815–1860
December 12, 2019–May 31, 2020 label: While living in Billerica, Porter depicted the Flagg family in nearby Andover: publisher Timothy Flagg; his wife Hannah Trow Flagg; and their children, Martha and John. In an era of high mortality rates, Porter’s likenesses of children were especially endearing. His exacting style animates Martha’s blue dress, delicate hair ribbon, and coral necklace. As a publisher, Flagg appreciated the advantages of highquality paper. Hannah’s sheet bears the impressed blind stamp “Superfine London Board,” denoting paper made by James L. and John Turnbull in London, England. Its quality has contributed to the miniatures’ fine condition almost two hundred years later.
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+2023.8.4 |
