Henry Smith
ca. 1854
Medium
Painting-Miniature
Classification
Painting-Miniature
Department
Smithsonian Collection
Museum
Smithsonian American Art Museum
Credit
Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of Mrs. Willis R. Adams
Accession Number
1961.2.1
Rights
Public Domain
Tags
About this artwork
This portrait shows a middle-aged man in formal dress, with a high collar and flat cravat typical of the 1840s and 1850s. On the back of the miniature is a plaited lock of hair, a popular token of affection between courting couples.
About the Artist
Thomas E. Barratt · 1814–1914
**Thomas E. Barratt** (born ca. 1814 in England) was a British-born miniaturist and portrait painter who spent much of his career in the United States. He emigrated after 1833 and established himself in Philadelphia, where he became active as a painter of small-scale portraits, often executed in watercolor on ivory. Barratt specialized in intimate, finely detailed likenesses that captured the sit...