Peter Bounetheauca. 1820
Both this miniature and Peter Bounetheau (1946.3.3) are nearly identical portraits of the artist’s father in the robes of a magistrate. More about this work
About this work
Both this miniature and Peter Bounetheau (1946.3.3) are nearly identical portraits of the artist’s father in the robes of a magistrate. Peter Bounetheau had served as a colonel in the Revolutionary War, and thereafter Benjamin Franklin appointed him the postmaster of Charleston, South Carolina. For both paintings, the artist copied a miniature of his father painted by Henry Benbridge as inspiration.
Text from the Smithsonian American Art Museum.
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.
Henry Brintnell Bounetheau
born Charleston, SC 1797-died Charleston, SC 1877
Rights and the museum’s record
Public domain. The Smithsonian American Art Museum has dedicated this image to the public domain under CC0, so anyone may copy, adapt and use it, for any purpose, without asking. Our prints and files are reproductions made from the museum’s image; the museum doesn’t endorse them.
- Object number
- 1946.3.2
- Credit
- Courtesy of the Smithsonian American Art Museum
- Type
- Painting-Miniature
- Department
- Painting and Sculpture
- Licence
- CC0 1.0 Universal
- Museum record
- See it on the museum’s site
