Rare PAIR
Portrait Miniatures
Attributed to the
RED BOOK ARTIST 

New England, ca. 1830.

Watercolor, gouache, and graphite on paper. Presumably husband and wife. In three-quarter length profile, each shows the characteristics associated with the Red Book Artist: Hollow-cut heads backed by black silk, watercolor bodies, overly long thumbs that curl upward and rest on red books, the hands in white and blue. Presented in period gilt frames that are likely original, frame size about 5 inches x 4 1/8.

Fine condition. From a superb Northeast collection of portraits and portrait-miniatures.

Reference: “A Loving Likeness: American Folk Portraits of the Nineteenth Century” The Gallery at Bristol-Myers Squibb, Princeton, 1992.