Miniature (Portrait miniature)

Description

James Peale was the most prolific miniaturist of the Peales, who were considered America’s first family of artists. This fashionable young man with powdered hair sports a green coat with brass buttons and a buff waistcoat. The sitter’s white ruffled shirt and white cravat tied with a bow show James Peale’s extraordinary ability to render fabric, here in subtle motion. The oval miniature is signed on the left over the sitter’s shoulder, IP/1792, the artist’s customary signature. Set in the original gold pendant frame with a scallop brightwork inner mount, the reverse is engraved with initials, possibly “S I C.”