# Colonel Elijah Rice

**John Wood Dodge** (born New York City 1807-died Pomona, TN 1893)  
1839  
watercolor on ivory  
image: sight 2 1/2 x 2 in. (6.4 x 5.2 cm) oval

Courtesy of the Smithsonian American Art Museum, 1973.40. [The museum's record](https://americanart.si.edu/collections/search/artwork/?id=6904).

## About this work

Colonel Elijah Rice invested heavily in sugar cane in Cuba, as a thriving part of the slave trade before the Civil War. His life ended in tragedy when he and all but one of his fourteen children died of consumption in Cuba. His widow, with her surviving daughter, Amanda, returned to Huntsville, Alabama, where John Wood Dodge painted this piece. The locket has elaborate hairwork on the reverse.

_Text from the Smithsonian American Art Museum._

John Wood Dodge painted this in 1839, aged 32. It is now at the Smithsonian American Art Museum in Washington, DC.

### How it was made

- **Watercolour on ivory.** Thin sheets of ivory gave watercolour a luminous, skin-like glow, which made them the favourite support for portrait miniatures from the early 1700s.
- **Watercolour.** Pigment in gum arabic, thinned with water and laid in transparent washes. Nothing white is painted: the light is the paper showing through.

### [John Wood Dodge](https://www.ochreeditions.com/artists/john-wood-dodge)

born New York City 1807-died Pomona, TN 1893

## Facts

- Type: Painting-Miniature
- The artist was 32
- Real size: about 2½ × 2 in (6 × 5 cm). The original is small: even the 8 × 10 in print shows it larger than life.
- Century: 19th century
- Subjects: Men, Portraits
- Colour: white
- Rights: public domain (CC0 1.0); free to use for any purpose.

## Get it

- Free download, full resolution: https://img.ochreeditions.com/m/1950.jpg?dl=1
- Image: https://img.ochreeditions.com/a/1950/1920.jpg
- Giclée reproduction on Hahnemühle Photo Rag: 8 × 10 in $28; 11 × 14 in $38; 12 × 16 in $42; 16 × 20 in $56
- Framed reproduction: 8 × 10 in $78; 11 × 14 in $98; 12 × 16 in $108; 16 × 20 in $138
- Canvas reproduction: 8 × 10 in $58; 11 × 14 in $72; 12 × 16 in $79; 16 × 20 in $98
- Print-ready file: 8 × 10 in $2; 11 × 14 in $2; 12 × 16 in $3; 16 × 20 in $3

Sizes stop where the museum's file would print below 150 pixels per inch. Everything sold is a reproduction, made to order. [Order a print](https://www.ochreeditions.com/art/colonel-elijah-rice-si-saam-1973-40).