Patina and Persistence: Miniature Patronage and Production in Antebellum Philadelphia

Abstract

In nineteenth-century America, men and women commissioned portraits to foster family memory and, occasionally, for institutional or political purposes. These images reminded the viewer of a particular individual and often captured the sitter at a specific point in his or her life cycle or career. Portrait consumption was part of Americans’ growing desire to acquire things, as well as a step in crafting an individual’s identity. In antebellum Philadelphia, many bourgeois chose portrait miniatures (watercolor images on ivory), a form that had largely waned in popularity. In previous decades, miniature portrait consumption had primarily been the purview of those with inherited wealth and position. Established bourgeois Philadelphians continued to choose miniatures, a mode of representation that symbolized their taste, sense of feeling, tradition, and refinement. Through the acts of commissioning, exchanging, and viewing miniatures, an art form with historical associations, new sectors of the bourgeois population helped stake their claims within the city’s social and cultural spheres. These keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.

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