Miniature (Portrait miniature)

Description

Painted in 1771, from the same sitting as The Edward Lloyd Family (1964.0124), this rare double portrait miniature features Edward Lloyd IV (2025.0010 A, the recto) and Elizabeth Tayloe Lloyd (2025.0010 B, the verso). This watercolor on ivory miniature is among Charles Willson Peale’s earliest works in the medium, created shortly after training under Benjamin West in London. Exchanged among elite families across the British Atlantic, miniatures like this were intimate tokens of kinship and status. Commissioned by Marylanders the Lloyds, this object reflects their cultural aspirations as well as their transatlantic material world. The materials used to create this costly piece as well as the Lloyds’ fashionable dress intimate an elite lifestyle rooted in London’s global market for luxury goods.