Portrait of a Woman
Framed: 1 15/16 × 1 5/8 inches (4.92 × 4.13 cm)
Four Centuries of Miniature Painting, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, January 19–March 19, 1950, no cat., as Portrait of a Lady.
The Starr Foundation Collection of Miniatures, The Royal Ontario Museum, Toronto, December 8, 1972–January 14, 1973, no cat., no. 25, as Unknown Lady.
Major John McLean Griffin (1870–1957), Bourn Hall, Cambridge, by 1926 [1];
Probably purchased from his sale, Objects of Vertu, Sotheby’s, London, May 12, 1926, lot 178, as A Lady, by James Lifetree, Esq. (ca. 1861–1943), London, 1926 [2];
With Harry Seal (1873–1948), Ullesthorpe House, Leicestershire, by 1949;
Purchased from his posthumous sale, The Choice Collection of Portrait Miniatures, formed by the late Harry Seal, Esq., Christie’s, London, February 16, 1949, lot 133, as A Lady, by Leo Schidlof (1866–1966), Paris and Vienna, 1949 [3];
Probably purchased from Leo Schidlof by Mr. John W. (1905–2000) and Mrs. Martha Jane (1906–2011) Starr, Kansas City, MO, 1950–1958;
Their gift to The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, MO, 1958.
Notes:
[1] Major McLean Griffin’s surname is sometimes alternately spelled “Maclean Griffin” and “McClean Griffin”. His name is inscribed as “Major John McLean Griffin” on his tombstone in St. Helena and St. Mary Churchyard, Bourn, Cambridge. With thanks to Maggie Keenan for her assistance with provenance research for this entry.
[2] The lot is described in the catalogue as follows: “Another, of a lady, probably by C. Boit, and of very fine work, head and shoulders facing, with long hair curling over her shoulders, in decolleté blue dress, oval, 1.8in.” The lot is annotated “Lifetree”. Mr. James Lifetree, Esq. donated several portrait miniatures to the Victoria and Albert Museum, London, in the 1920s. Lifetree co-owned a business, Gilt and Fancy Moulding Manufacturers, at 34, 36 and 38, Bannerstreet, London and Wusterhausen, Germany, which was dissolved on March 16, 1906. London Gazette, January 1, 1907, 69, https://www.thegazette.co.uk/London/issue/27982/page/69/data.pdf.
[3] A number of miniatures in the Starr collection were acquired either directly or indirectly from the Seal sale. The lot is described as “A Lady, by Charles Boit, signed in full. Nearly full face, in décolleté blue dress, with long hair curling over her shoulders. Oval – 1 3/4 in. high – in gold frame. From the Collection of Major J. M. Griffin, 1926.”
Catalogue of Objects of Vertu (London: Sotheby’s, May 12, 1926), 20, as A Lady.
Catalogue of The Choice Collection of Portrait Miniatures, formed by the late Harry Seal, Esq. (London: Christie’s, February 16, 1949), 25, as A Lady.
Ross E. Taggart, ed., Handbook of the Collections in the William Rockhill Nelson Gallery of Art and Mary Atkins Museum of Fine Arts, 4th ed. (Kansas City, MO: William Rockhill Nelson Gallery of Art and Mary Atkins Museum of Fine Arts, 1959), 264, as Portrait of a Lady.
Martha Jane and John W. Starr, “Collecting Portrait Miniatures,” Antiques 80, no. 5 (November 1961): 439.
Ross E. Taggart, The Starr Collection of Miniatures in the William Rockhill Nelson Gallery (Kansas City, MO: Nelson Gallery-Atkins Museum, 1971), no. 25, p. 14, (repro.), as Unknown Lady.
