Portrait of a Man
Artist
Unknown
CultureEnglish
Dateca. 1805
MediumWatercolor on ivory;
Gilt copper alloy case with opalescent glass over embossed foil and hair memento
DimensionsSight: 2 13/16 × 2 3/16 inches (7.14 × 5.56 cm)
Framed: 3 × 2 3/8 inches (7.62 × 6.03 cm)
Framed: 3 × 2 3/8 inches (7.62 × 6.03 cm)
Credit LineGift of Mr. and Mrs. John W. Starr and the Starr Foundation, Inc.
Object numberF58-60/158
InscribedInscribed on trade card in case: "Moore New --- Street".
On View
Not on viewCollections
DescriptionPortrait miniature of a man with powdered (?) hair wearing a dark coat before a brown background.Exhibition HistoryThe Starr Foundation Collection of Miniatures, The Royal Ontario Museum, Toronto, December 8, 1972–January 14, 1973, no cat., no. 204, as Unknown Man.
Open-necked shirts and unpowdered curls abounded in the Regency era (about 1795–1837). A period in Britain associated with the rise of King George IV and the work of novelist Jane Austen, this time left its mark on fashion, too. The poet Lord Byron set the tone for the casual elegance of the period, and many men followed his example. He wore his collars open and his hair short, letting his curls cluster at the front. The period also witnessed the rise of the dandy who prided himself on his immaculate linen shirts with high collars and tailored dark coats. Although tastes evolve, modern-day equivalents of the dandy persist.
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.
Ross E. Taggart, The Starr Collection of Miniatures in the William Rockhill Nelson Gallery (Kansas City, MO: Nelson Gallery-Atkins Museum, 1971), no. 204, p. 69, (repro.), as Unknown Man.
Maggie Keenan, “Unknown, Portrait of a Man, ca. 1805,” 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. 3, ed. Aimee Marcereau DeGalan (Kansas City, MO: Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, 2024), https://doi.org/10.37764/8322.5.1695.
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.
