The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of March 22, 2024

Portrait of a Woman in Blue

Portrait of a Woman in Blue

c. 1700
(British, c. 1645–1724)
Framed: 9.2 x 7.3 cm (3 5/8 x 2 7/8 in.); Sight: 8.2 x 6.4 cm (3 1/4 x 2 1/2 in.)
Location: not on view

Did You Know?

This miniature is in its original ivory frame, stained a mottled brown to imitate tortoise shell.

Description

Living in London, the youngest of seven children, Peter Cross was probably apprenticed to a limner following the death of his wealthy father. His first miniatures date from around 1661, and he remained active until his death, ushering the medium into the eighteenth century; the greatest British miniaturists working during his lifetime, all had died or ceased to work by 1700. Although ivory had been adopted as a support for British miniature painting a decade before his death, Cross exclusively used the older medium of vellum adhered to card. The artist was also an avid collector, assembling an impressive group of miniatures that included at least twelve works by his neighbor Samuel Cooper. This collection was sold in 1722 at Cross’s house in Covent Garden.
Cross’s style is distinguished by a fi ne stippling of colors that combine to create soft, voluminous hair and pale flesh tones. His later works tend to leave the prepared white ground of the vellum bare—coincidentally, a strategy that was adopted by artists painting miniatures on ivory to exploit the support’s translucence. The details of his early instruction are still obscure, but some scholars have postulated that Cooper trained Cross, whereas others note a greater resemblance to the style of Hoskins, and still others detect a similarity to French stippling and suggest that he may have been trained
overseas.
The artist depicted the unknown sitter almost full face before a plain gray background with her head turned slightly to the right. She dons a white gown trimmed with ruffles at the neckline and a bright blue mantle over her right shoulder. Her powdered hair is swept up and loosely covered either by the blue mantle or a scarf of the same color.
  • By 1875
    Possibly Anthony Ashley-Cooper, 7th Early of Shaftesbury (1801-1885), Wimborne St. Giles, Dorset, England
    By 1889-1901
    Sir Francis Cook, 1st Baronet (1817-1901), Richmond, England and Sintra, Portugal, by inheritance to his son, Wyndham Francis Cook
    1901-1905
    Wyndham Francis Cook (1860-1905), London, England, by inheritance to his wife Frederica Evelyn Stillwell Cook
    1905-1925
    Frederica Evelyn Stillwell Cook (née Freeland, died 1925), London, England, by inheritance to her son, Humphrey Wyndam Cook
    1925
    Humphrey Wyndham Cook (1893–1978), London, England
    July 9, 1925
    (Sale: Christie's London, July 9, 1925, lot 319)
    1925-1928
    (Leo Schidhof (1886-1966), Paris, France, sold to Edward B. Greene)
    1928-1941
    Edward B. Greene (1878-1957), Cleveland, OH, gifted to the Cleveland Museum of Art
    1941-
    The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
  • Burlington Fine Arts Club, and John Lumsden Propert. Exhibition of Portrait Miniatures. London: Printed for the Burlington fine arts club, 1889. no. 27, pl. XIII
    Propert, J. Lumsden. “The English School of Miniature Art.” The Magazine of Art 14 (1891). p. 173
    Williamson, George Charles, and Howard Coppuck Levis. Portrait Miniatures: From the Time of Holbein 1531 to That of Sir William Ross 1860: a Handbook for Collectors. London: G. Bell, 1897. Reproduced: opp. p. 44
    COOK, Wyndham Francis. Catalogue of the Art Collection ... 8, Cadogan Square [Residence of W.F. Cook], Etc. (Vol. 1. [By B. Rackham, H.P. Mitchell and Others. With a Preface by W.F. Cook.]-Vol. 2. Catalogue of the Antiquities, Greek, Etruscan and Roman, in the Collection of the Late Wyndham Francis Cook, Esqre. By Cecil H. Smith and C. Amy Hutton. [With Plates.]). Metchim & Son: [London], 1904. p. 150, no. 678. Vol. 1
    Christie, Manson & Woods. Important Collection of Objects of Art of the Middle Ages and Renaissance. [London]: [Christie, Manson & Woods, Ltd.], 1925. lot 319
    Cleveland Museum of Art. Portrait Miniatures; The Edward B. Greene Collection. Cleveland: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1951. Mentioned: p. 26, no. 10; reproduced: pl. V, no. 10 archive.org
    Reynolds, Graham. English Portrait Miniatures. Cambridge, MA : Cambridge University Press, 1988. Mentioned: p. 84-86
    Korkow, Cory, and Dario Robleto. Disembodied: Portrait Miniatures and Their Contemporary Relatives. 2013. Mentioned: p.86
    Korkow, Cory, and Jon L. Seydl. British Portrait Miniatures: The Cleveland Museum of Art. 2013. Cat. no. 20, pp. 108-111
    Burlington Fine Arts Club, and John Lumsden Propert. Exhibition of Portrait Miniatures. London: Printed for the Burlington fine arts club, 1889. Mentioned: case: XXVIII, no. 27, Reproduced: pl. XIII
  • Disembodied: Portrait Minatures and their Contemporary Relatives. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (November 10, 2013-February 16, 2014).
    Intimate Images: Portrait Miniatures from Europe and America. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (March 26-October 17, 1993).
    Exhibition of Portrait Miniatures, Burlington Fine Arts Club, London, England (1889).
    Main Gallery Rotation (Gallery 202), The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (September 22, 2008 - January 5, 2009).
    Four Centuries of Miniature Painting. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY (organizer) (January 18-March 19, 1950).
  • {{cite web|title=Portrait of a Woman in Blue|url=false|author=Peter Cross|year=c. 1700|access-date=22 March 2024|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}

Source URL:

https://www.clevelandart.org/art/1941.554