Self-Portrait, 1823, by Charles Fraser (1782-1860), watercolor on ivory.

Miniatures exhibition on view at Gibbes Museum of Art

CHARLESTON, S.C.

American Miniature Portrait Painting is now on view through Aug. 5, 2001 at the Miniature Portrait Gallery of the Gibbes Museum of Art in Charleston. Giving an overview of the museum's distinctive Miniature Portrait Collection, this exhibition includes works from the 18th through the 20th centuries.

History of Miniatures

Predominantly worn as jewelry or carried by men and women for sentimental reasons, early miniature portrait paintings grew from medieval manuscript illuminations. As an identifiable art form, it became especially popular during the 16th-century reign of Elizabeth I of England. Miniaturists were closely tied to royal patronage at that time, frequently attaining permanent royal appointments and given titles such as "Miniature Painter to the King."

Originally painted on pieces of card or vellum, miniatures were eventually created on ivory, particularly after 1700 in England. This new medium helped miniatures reach a level of elegance and refinement not seen before. As a result, their popularity grew and they were worn or used by both men and women for the next three centuries.

By the 1790s many artists immigrated to Charleston because of the political unrest abroad and began painting distinctive portraits which were often highly detailed and with opaque, dark backgrounds. Three such French artists were Pierre Henri (active in America, 1788-1818), Jean FranAoise VallEe (active in America, 1794-1815) and Louis Antoine Collas (1775-1829). In contrast to the sophisticated style of these immigrants, early native painters preferred down-to-earth, realistic portraits.

About 1800, two miniaturists emerged who synthesized the sophistication of the European painters with the realism of American artists. The miniatures by James Peale (1749-1831) combine fluid handling with careful depictions and character analysis.

James Peale learned his craft from his older and more famous brother, Charles Wilson Peale, as well as from Edward Greene Malbone (1777-1807) who visited Charleston during 1801 and 1802.

Throughout the 19th century, a continuous stream of native and European-born artists made their way to Charleston in search of commissions. Some like Malbone were extremely successful, however, others such as Joseph Jackson (1796-1850) had mixed success. Perhaps for this reason, Jackson, together with his wife and son Henry, a landscape painter, turned to the repair and restoration of damaged paintings. This was a common sideline for artists trying to make a living.

In 19th-century Charleston, native-born artist Charles Fraser (1782-1860) dominated miniature portrait painting. While Fraser studied and practiced law for 11 years, his true vocation was painting. Thus, in 1818, he began an account book that lists his sitters and the sums he received in payment until the year 1839. This listing presents a veritable social register of antebellum Charleston.

Fraser's only formal training seems to have been from Thomas Coram (1756-1811), primarily an engraver and painter of small views. Under Coram' s influence Fraser started his watercolor sketchbooks that depict many of the area's plantations.

By the 1830s miniature portraits were no longer designed to be worn. Instead they became bigger and the cases heavier. These cases allowed the owner to display the portrait on a mantel, desk or table.

The extreme popularity of miniatures began to wane in the 1840s, in part due to a decline in portraiture in general, the rise of landscape painting, and the invention of the daguerreotype. This earliest of photographic techniques, the daguerreotype, allowed for relatively rapid and inexpensive likenesses that were seen as clear statements of an individual rather than an interpretation.

In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, prominent painters who were primarily associated with the Arts and Crafts Period began to renew their interest in miniature portrait painting. Charleston experienced a modest revival in the work of Leila Waring (1876-1964). A distant relative of the well-known, early 19th century miniature portrait painter Edward Malbone, Waring emerged as Charleston's chief miniature painter of the twentieth century. She was actively involved at the Gibbes as a researcher and organizer of three major miniature exhibitions in the 1930s that included her work and formed the core of the Gibbes collection.

The Miniature Portrait Collection at the Gibbes Museum of Art is composed of over 600 examples by English, French and American artists that represent the miniature portrait tradition in Charleston from 1730 through the early part of the 20th century. Resulting from numerous gifts and bequests from the people of Charleston, the collection is one of the most important in the United States.