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Portrait of Joseph Bruen

Artist Unknown
Formerly attributed to John Ramage (Irish, worked in America, ca. 1748 - 1802)
Dateca. 1790
MediumWatercolor on ivory; Gilt copper alloy cartridge-edged case
DimensionsOverall: 2 × 1 1/2 inches (5.08 × 3.81 cm)
Credit LineGift of Mr. and Mrs. John W. Starr and the Starr Foundation, Inc.
Object numberF58-60/113
InscribedErroneously inscribed on case verso: “Joseph Bruen / John Ramage / 1778”
On View
Not on view
Collections
DescriptionPortrait miniature of a man with powdered hair wearing a black coat before a blue background.Exhibition History
The Starr Foundation Collection of Miniatures, The Royal Ontario Museum, Toronto, December 8, 1972–January 14, 1973, no cat., no. 224, as Joseph Bruen.
Provenance

Mr. John W. (1905–2000) and Mrs. Martha Jane (1906–2011) Starr, Kansas City, MO, by 1958;

Their gift to The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, MO, 1958.

Published References

Ross E. Taggart, The Starr Collection of Miniatures in the William Rockhill Nelson Gallery (Kansas City, MO: Nelson Gallery-Atkins Museum, 1971), no. 224, p. 73, (repro.), as by John Ramage, Joseph Bruen.

Maggie Keenan, “Unknown, Portrait of Joseph Bruen, ca. 1790,” catalogue entry in Aimee Marcereau DeGalan, Blythe Sobol, and Maggie Keenan, The Starr Collection of Portrait Miniatures, 1500–1850: The Collections of the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, vol. 1, ed. Aimee Marcereau DeGalan (Kansas City, MO: Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, 2024), https://doi.org/10.37764/8322.5.3115.

Information about a particular artwork or image, including provenance information, is based upon historic information and may not be currently accurate or complete. Research on artwork and images is an ongoing process, and the information about a particular artwork or image may not reflect the most current information available to the Museum. If you notice a mistake or have additional information about a particular artwork or image, please e-mail provenance@nelson-atkins.org.


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