Portrait of a Mother and Child (recto); Three Children with Dog and Cat (verso)

Inscriptions

Unsigned

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

Exhibition History

Animal, Vegetable, Mineral: Making Colors in Europe, 1400–1800, Harrington Gallery, Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire, September 6 - Fall 2026.

Provenance

Purchased by Jean Frank Hamann (1933-2023), Philadelphia, PA; 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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Subjects