Portrait of a Woman
Framed: 2 × 1 9/16 inches (5.08 × 3.97 cm)
- 124
Possibly Mrs. Marjorie Rees (d. after 1954), by 1954 [1];
Purchased from her sale, Fine Portrait Miniatures, Faberge, Watches, and Objects of Vertu, Sotheby’s, London, November 11, 1954, lot 43, as A Small Miniature of a Lady, by Leggatt Brothers, London, probably on behalf of Mr. John W. (1905–2000) and Mrs. Martha Jane (1906–2011) Starr, Kansas City, MO, 1954–1958 [2];
Their gift to The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, MO, 1958.
Notes
[1] Additional information on Rees remains unknown, but her life dates may be ca. 1899–1955.
[2] The lot description states, “A small miniature of a Lady by George Engleheart, nearly full face, in straw hat with blue ribbon, her dress with wide white frilled collar, oval, 1 3/8 in.” An annotated sales catalogue is located at the University of Missouri-Kansas City, Miller Nichols Library and is likely annotated by Mr. or Mrs. Starr with a check mark, “B-140,” and “£40.”
According to an attached price list, Leggatt Brothers bought lot 43 for 40 pounds. Archival research has shown that Leggatt Brothers served as purchasing agents for the Starrs. See correspondence between Betty Hogg and Martha Jane Starr, May 15 and June 3, 1950, Nelson-Atkins curatorial files.
Catalogue of Fine Portrait Miniatures, Faberge, Watches and Objects of Vertu (London: Sotheby’s, November 11, 1954), 8, as A Lady.
Ross E. Taggart, The Starr Collection of Miniatures in the William Rockhill Nelson Gallery (Kansas City, MO: Nelson Gallery-Atkins Museum, 1971), no. 71, p. 27, (repro.), as Unknown Lady.
Aimee Marcereau DeGalan, “George Engleheart, Portrait of a Woman, ca. 1785,” 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. 2, ed. Aimee Marcereau DeGalan (Kansas City, MO: Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, 2024), https://doi.org/10.37764/8322.5.1379.
