Self portrait
ca. 1830
Medium
Watercolor on ivory
Dimensions
2 21/32 x 2 3/16 in. (6.7 x 5.6 cm)
Classification
Painting, miniature
Culture
American
Department
The American Wing
Museum
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Credit
Bequest of Ella Church Strobell, 1917
Accession Number
17.134.5
Tags
Art Historical Context
In the early 19th century, women like Louisa Catherine Strobel often turned to miniature portraiture as a socially acceptable avenue for artistic expression. This delicate *Self-Portrait*, created around 1830, exemplifies the genre: a tiny watercolor on ivory measuring just 2 21/32 x 2 3/16 inches (6.7 x 5.6 cm). Such miniatures were prized personal treasures, often worn as jewelry or kept in lockets, capturing the sitter's likeness with intimate precision. Strobel's choice of watercolor on ivory—a smooth, luminous surface—allowed for subtle layering of translucent colors, evoking the era's fa...
About the Artist
Louisa Catherine Strobel · 1803–1883
Louisa Catherine Strobel was born in 1803 in Liverpool, England, to American diplomat Daniel Strobel Jr. and his wife Ann Church, during her father's posting there. The family, neighbors to the Gladstones—where young Louisa reportedly played with the future British prime minister William Ewart Gladstone's older brother—fled back to the United States amid the War of 1812 tensions, only to relocate ...