Portrait of a Seated Child in Upholstered Blue Chair holding a Rose
Léauté, French, active in Sweden 1810 - 1830
1815
Watercolor on ivory
Sight: 1 15/16 × 1 15/16 in. (5 × 5 cm)
Diameter: 3 5/8 in. (9.2 cm)
Depth: 7/8 in. (2.3 cm)
Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth: The Jean Frank Hamann Collection; Gift of her Children, David Frank, Lori Weinrott, Nina Frank, Ted Frank, and Sally Frank
2024.77.14
Geography
Place Made: Sweden, Europe
Period
19th century
Object Name
Painting
Research Area
Painting
On view
Inscriptions
Leauté pinxit 1815
Label
Portrait miniatures were popular keepsakes from about the 16th century onward. Intimate representations of individuals or families, these portraits could be given as tokens of affection, friendship, or commemoration and worn as jewelry or kept safely in boxes. Artists’ use of high-status materials such as tortoise shell, ivory, silver, and enamel complemented the preciousness of these representations. Organic supports and water-based pigments are especially susceptible to light damage from UV rays, an attribute to these paintings already recognized even in the early modern period. Many miniatures accordingly had their own cases to protect the colors from fading.
From the 2025 exhibition Animal, Vegetable, Mineral: Making Colors in Europe, 1400–1800, curated by Elizabeth Rice Mattison, Andrew W. Mellon Curator of Academic Programming and Curator of European Art
Course History
Italian 1.02, Introductory Italian I, Noemi Perego, Fall 2025
Italian 1.03, Introductory Italian I, Noemi Perego, Fall 2025
Italian 1.01, Introductory Italian I, Giorgio Alberti, Fall 2025
Italian 3.02, Introductory Italian III, Giorgio Alberti, Fall 2025
Italian 3.01, Introductory Italian III, Marco D'Angelo, Fall 2025
Music 99.01, Senior Proseminar: Loving Music Slowly, Richard Beaudoin, Fall 2025
Exhibition History
Animal, Vegetable, Mineral: Making Colors in Europe, 1400–1800, Harrington Gallery, Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire, September 6, 2025 - November 14, 2026.
Provenance
Joan R. Brownstein Art & Antiques, Newbury, MA; purchased by Jean Frank Hamann (1933-2023), Philadelphia, PA, 2008; bequeathed to her children David Frank, Lori Winrott, Nina Frank, Ted Frank, and Sally Frank; by whom given to the present collection, 2024
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