America’s First Face: The Progress of Portrait Miniatures in the New Republic
Elle Shushan, Philadelphia, PA
July 11, 1804 marked a turning point for the new republic, the United States of America. The new nation's naivete was blasted when Vice President Aaron Burr fatally wounded Alexander Hamilton, former Secretary of the Treasury and author of 51 of the 85 "Federalist Papers." One founding father fatally wounded another founding father, ending America's age of innocence with the country's first great political tragedy.
Three days after the duel, record crowds thronged Broadway to pay homage as Alexander Hamilton's funeral cortege passed. While the mourners congregated in the streets below, an important---and far happier---meeting of artistic importance took place. In a studio overlooking the street, Anson Dickinson, then 24 years old, first met the miniaturist Edward Greene Malbone. The legendary reputation of the 26-year old Malbone lead Dickinson to commission Malbone to paint his portrait so that the younger artist could study the more experienced artist's technique.
Around the corner, 24-year old John Wesley Jarvis formed a partnership with 26-year old Joseph Wood. The four young, attractive, educated men forged a firm friendship and, along the way, developed a distinctively American style. American miniatures developed an open, lighter appearance that reflected the new republic's---momentarily diminished---optimism. Washes of watercolor bathed rectangular ivory supports with luminosity. Backgrounds of blue sky and clouds gave way to feigned landscapes tinged with shades of turquoise and mauve.
The uniquely American characteristics of the new majestic style influenced, among other artists, Gilbert Stuart and George Savage. The next generation of artists taught by Malbone, Dickinson, Jarvis and Wood---Henry Inman, Charles Bird King, Nathaniel Rogers and Thomas Seir Cummings---helped found the National Academy of Design, in 1825, "to promote the fine arts in America through instruction and exhibition." The success of that uniquely American institution is demonstrated by subsequent generations of Academicians, Albert Bierstadt, Frederic Church, Thomas Eakins, Winslow Homer and John Singer Sargent to Richard Diebenkorn, Robert Rauschenberg, Wayne Thiebaud and Andrew Wyeth.
Elle Shushan specializes in the full range of portrait miniatures from the 16th through the 20th centuries, from Great Britain, continental Europe and America. Although she is known as a dealer in portrait miniatures, Elle Shushan's resume shows a career lived large. She represented Cher and produced a Broadway show.
Ms Shushan also has an enduring interest in otherworldly things. Her home décor includes Gothic revival furniture, tombstones and memento mori art, often a companion field of portrait miniatures. These eerie interests led to her book "Grave Matters: A Curious Collection of 500 Actual Epitaphs" (1990). She also contributed "Tears of Sorrow: New England Portrait Miniatures and Mourning Jewelry" to "The Art of the Family: Genealogical Artifacts in New England" (2002).
Our speaker has effectively combined her artistic, dramatic, entrepreneurial and otherworldly interests. Which inclination, however, predominates? Had Elle Shushan been in Edward Greene Malbone's studio on July 14, 1804, would she have brokered a deal with Anson Dickinson or been engrossed by Alexander Hamilton's funeral cortege?