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Rare & Important 19th American Portrait Miniature Of Eliza Southgate Bowne By Edward Greene Malbone
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| Rare & Important Early 19th Century American Portrait Miniature Of Eliza Southgate Bowne By Edward Greene Malbone (1777-1809). Attributed approximately some where during circa: 1803 which is date of marriage recorded for Eliza Southgate. (1784-1809). This is one of a pair of miniatures painted by Edward Greene Malbone , The "foremost American miniature painter" "(Fielding's) This miniature of Mrs. Bowne is one of the 157 known portraits listed in "Early American Portrait Painters in Miniature," by Theodore Boulton, New York 1921. Verified in "A Girls Life Eighty Years Ago" Eliza Southgate Bowne poised for her self portrait in New York on June 18th, in 1803 (Reference Pages 158 & 161) The letters of Eliza Southgate Bowne have been collected and published in a book "A Girl's Life Eighty Years Ago." Selections from the Letters of Eliza Southgate Bowne, with an Introduction by Clarence Cook, Illustrated with Portraits and Views, Charles Scribner's Sons, 1887, Republished in 1980 by Corner House Publishers, Williamston, Mass. The second miniature by Malbone is pictured as the frontispiece of "A Girls Life Eighty Years Ago." This portrait miniature we are speaking of which is for sale by Equinox Antiques & Fine Art in Manchester, Vermont is referenced on page 161. "Malbone has finished my picture, but is unwilling we should have it as the likeness is not striking, -- he says not handsome enough -- So says Mr. B. But I think it is in some things much flattered. It looks too serious, pensive, soft, -- that's not my style at all. But perhaps it will look different: 'twas not quite finished when I saw it; however, he insists (Malbone) on taking it again as soon as he returns from Southward, and told Mr. Bowne, if he must have one he might keep this...." A Girls Life Eighty Years Ago is a well known book to Americana collectors. Eliza Southgate Bowne was of a prominent family, and she lived a very short life (1784-1809). These two miniatures, the first in the process completed by the artist for the newly married Eliza Southgate Bowne are the only two miniatures of her ever recorded. In original condition in an excellent state of preservation and in its original gilt surround oval frame. It is available for sale for the first time since the family repurchased if from Park Bernet circa 1950 via the Erskin Hewitt Collection. Size: 2.325" Width X 3" Height Edward Greene Malbone (1777 - 1807) Before his death in Savannah at age twenty-nine, Malbone had attained his reputation as America's outstanding miniaturist. Leaving his native Newport, RI, in 1794 as a seventeen-year-old self-taught artist, Malbone initiated a career which took him to the major east coast cities: Providence, Boston, New York, Philadelphia and Charleston. He carefully recorded his success in an account book begun in Charleston in December, 1801. Among his friends and admirers was Washington Allston, with whom Malbone traveled to England in May, 1801. In London, he frequented the studios and galleries, admiring more the work of his English contemporaries Sir Thomas Lawrence and Richard Cosway that the paintings of the old masters. His circle of associates included the Americans Benjamin West, John Trumbull and Charlestonian John Blake White. He seems to have studied at the Royal Academy on an informal basis. In his native country America he befriended numerous artists, including Anson Dickinson, Benjamin Trott and Charles Fraser. Upon his return from England, Malbone renewed his itinerant path. His periods in Charleston tended to be his most productive. Two-and-a-half months during the spring of 1801 resulted in thirty-one miniatures and in a five-month span from December 1801 to 1802, he painted fifty-eight miniatures. His final visit to Charleston was in the spring of 1806, at which time he caught a violent cold which eventually contributed to his demise. Late that year, Fraser traveled to Newport where he found that "Poor Malbone is not in a condition to paint. I am afraid he is hastening to that bourne whence no traveller can return. He was ill the whole time I remained at Newport." (Charles Fraser to Susan Fraser, 9th October, 1806, Winthrop-Fraser Papers, SCHS. Malbone was recognized as a refined and accomplished artist, whose miniatures had stylistic finesse. Allston, in a letter quoted by Dunlap described Malbone's genius: "He had the happy talent among his many excellencies, of elevating the character without impairing the likeness, this was remarkable in his male heads, and no woman ever lost any beauty from his hand, nay, the fair would often become still fairer under his pencil." In London, John Blake White commented, "Malbone as a miniature painter stands high already, and may rank with the first in England. He is a man of uncommon taste and elegance in that line." And Fraser, in the obituary he wrote for the Charleston Times, state "He imparted such life to the ivory, and porduced always such striking resemblances, that they will never fail to perpetuate the tenderness of friendship, to divert the cares of absence, and to aid affection in dwelling on those features and that image, which death has forever wrested from it. His style of painting was chaste and correct, his colouring dear and judiciously wrought, and his taste altogether derived from a just contemplation of nature." (Charleston Times, 27th May, 1807) Both sitter Eliza Southgate Bowne & artist: Edward Greene Malbone died of consumption. **The complete family history of decent from Eliza Southgate Bowne marriage to present ownership is available to the purchaser along with copies of "A Girls' Life Eighty Years Ago" - Selections From The Letters Of Eliza Southgate Bowne - Corner House Publishers - Williamstown, Massachusetts 1980. **Eliza Southgate Bowne poised for her self portrait in New York on June 18th, 1803 as verified in "A Girl's Life Eighty Years Ago" on pages 158 & 161. **A Wonderful Documented Example! |
Stock # RMPM2
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