Portrait of Edmund Kean

Former TitlePortrait of Charles Kean

Artist Solomon Alexander Hart (English, 1806 - 1881)

Date1827

MediumWatercolor on ivory; Gilt bronze frame

DimensionsSight: 1 13/16 × 1 1/2 inches (4.6 × 3.81 cm)
Framed: 2 13/16 × 2 1/2 inches (7.14 × 6.35 cm)

Credit LineGift of Mr. and Mrs. John W. Starr and the Starr Foundation, Inc.

Object numberF58-60/69

InscribedInscribed on recto, lower left: "S. A. Hart / 1827" Inscribed on case verso: "Charles Kean / Actor"

On View

Not on view

Collections

European Art

Terms

DescriptionPortrait miniature of a man wearing a blue coat before a blue-gray background.Exhibition History

Exhibition History

Signed Miniatures, Sidney Hand, London, 1924, no. 2, as Charles Kean, the Actor [1].

NOTES:

[1] The exact dates of the exhibition are unknown.

Gallery Label

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 (see number 6) 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.

Provenance

With Sidney Hand, London, by 1924 [1];

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.

NOTES:

[1] With thanks to Cara Nordengren for her research on this miniature. Sidney Hand was a London dealer who exhibited a large group of portrait miniatures in their gallery in 1924, including Portrait of Charles Kean, 1827, F58-60/69. A printed catalogue was published to coincide with their display.

Published References

Signed Miniatures, exh. cat. (London: Sidney Hand, 1924), 10, 18, (repro.).

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.

Leo R. Schidlof, The Miniature in Europe: In the 16th, 17th, 18th, and 19th centuries (Graz, Austria: Akademische Druck- U. Verlagsanstalt, 1964), 334.

Ross E. Taggart, The Starr Collection of Miniatures in the William Rockhill Nelson Gallery (Kansas City, MO: Nelson Gallery-Atkins Museum, 1971), no. 211, p. 71, (repro.), as Charles Kean (Actor).

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