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.
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