The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of March 25, 2024

Portrait of a Young Man

Portrait of a Young Man

c. 1805
(British, 1763–1837)
Framed: 8.3 x 7 cm (3 1/4 x 2 3/4 in.); Unframed: 7.9 x 6.5 cm (3 1/8 x 2 9/16 in.)
Location: not on view

Did You Know?

This sitter has been traditionally identified as a member of the famous Baring banking family although which brother we are unsure.

Description

This miniature is an extremely fi ne example of Andrew Plimer’s mature work. Painted around 1805, the artist eschews the Richard Cosway-esque blue sky background he so often adopted for an elaborate network of crosshatching over a rich brown ground, into which the sitter almost dissolves. He has gray eyes and light brown hair and wears a grayish-brown coat and a white collar. His gaze firmly meets that of the viewer. The painting is housed in its original gold frame, the verso of which has a curl of light brown hair fastened with a band of pearls on white opalescent glass under clear glass. There is also a paper label of unknown origin at the top, on which is written “226.” The sitter’s hair is worn à l’antique (hair cut short and worn in curls, especially around the forehead), a style sported by men after the turn of the century that harks back to the coiffures of statesmen of ancient Rome.1 In addition, this sitter’s brown hair is completely unpowdered, as was fashionable among young men at the turn of the century. The hair is beautifully delineated by small, undulating parallel lines.
This sitter has been traditionally identified as a member of the famous Baring banking family. There is a miniature portrait of Thomas Baring (1772–1848) painted by George Engleheart (1752–1829) in 1803 in the museum’s collection. His brother George Baring (1781–1854) was also painted by Engleheart around 1805. The young man in this portrait by Plimer might also be one of the other three Baring brothers: Alexander, 1st Baron Ashburton (1774–1848), Henry (1776–1848), or William (1779–1820). Of the four brothers with extant portraits, the Plimer sitter bears the closest resemblance to Alexander because of his piercing, narrow eyes. Yet the c. 1810 portrait of Alexander by Thomas Lawrence is too dissimilar, having features that could not have been the product of an intervening period of only five years. Since it does not bear a striking likeness to any of these extant portraits, this miniature cannot be definitively identified as a member of the Baring family. Both of the Baring family portrait miniatures in Cleveland’s
collection were purchased by Edward Greene from the dealer Leo Schidlof on 6 August 1928, suggesting that they may have come from the same collection before entering into Schidlof’s hands.
  • -1928
    (Leo Schidlof (1886-1966), Paris, France, sold to Edward B. Greene)
    1928-1942
    Edward B. Greene (1878-1957), Cleveland, OH, gifted to the Cleveland Museum of Art
    1942-
    The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
  • Cleveland Museum of Art. Portrait Miniatures: The Edward B. Greene Collection. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art,1951. Reproduced: no. 27, pl. XXI archive.org
    Cleveland Museum of Art, and Alan Chong. European & American Painting in the Cleveland Museum of Art: A Summary Catalogue. Cleveland, Ohio: Cleveland Museum of Art, 1993. p. 300
    Korkow, Cory, and Dario Robleto. Disembodied: Portrait Miniatures and Their Contemporary Relatives. 2013. Mentioned: p.83
    Korkow, Cory, and Jon L. Seydl. British Portrait Miniatures: The Cleveland Museum of Art. 2013. Cat. no. 58, pp. 229231
  • 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).
    Main Gallery Rotation (Gallery 202), The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (January 5, 2009 - April 6, 2009).
  • {{cite web|title=Portrait of a Young Man|url=false|author=Andrew Plimer|year=c. 1805|access-date=25 March 2024|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}

Source URL:

https://www.clevelandart.org/art/1942.1153