Portrait of a Gentleman
c. 1790
Medium
Watercolor on ivory, with hair in gold and enamel frame with Brazilian diamonds
Dimensions
4 × 3.2 cm (1 9/16 × 1 1/4 in.); Framed: 6.5 × 5.6 cm (2 9/16 × 2 3/16 in.)
Classification
miniature painting
Department
Painting and Sculpture of Europe
Museum
Art Institute of Chicago
Accession Number
9704
Art Historical Context
Step into the elegant world of 18th portraiture with Richard Cosway's *Portrait of a Gentleman* (c. 1790), a exquisite miniature painting housed in the Art Institute of's Department of Painting and Sculpture of. Cosway, a Royal Academician and one of Britain's foremost miniaturists, captured the refined likeness of an unidentified sitter in watercolor on ivory—a medium prized for its smooth, luminous surface that allowed for jewel-like precision in such a diminutive 4 × 3.2 cm format. These tiny treasures were the Instagram of their day: intimate keepsakes worn as brooches or lockets by aristo...