# Peter Bounetheau

**Henry Brintnell Bounetheau** (born Charleston, SC 1797-died Charleston, SC 1877)  
ca. 1820  
watercolor on ivory  
sight 6 1/4 x 4 3/4 in. (15.9 x 12.1 cm) oval

Courtesy of the Smithsonian American Art Museum, 1946.3.2. [The museum's record](https://americanart.si.edu/collections/search/artwork/?id=2661).

## 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._

Henry Brintnell Bounetheau painted this in about 1820, aged 23. 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.

### [Henry Brintnell Bounetheau](https://www.ochreeditions.com/artists/henry-brintnell-bounetheau)

born Charleston, SC 1797-died Charleston, SC 1877

## Facts

- Type: Painting-Miniature
- The artist was 23
- Real size: about 6½ × 5 in (16 × 12 cm). The original is small: even the 8 × 10 in print shows it larger than life.
- Century: 19th century
- Subjects: Statesman, Occupations, Men, Portraits, Political
- Colour: brown
- Rights: public domain (CC0 1.0); free to use for any purpose.

## Get it

- Free download, full resolution: https://img.ochreeditions.com/m/1893.jpg?dl=1
- Image: https://img.ochreeditions.com/a/1893/1920.jpg
- Giclée reproduction on Hahnemühle Photo Rag: 8 × 10 in $28; 11 × 14 in $38; 12 × 16 in $42; 16 × 20 in $56; 18 × 24 in $68
- Framed reproduction: 8 × 10 in $78; 11 × 14 in $98; 12 × 16 in $108; 16 × 20 in $138; 18 × 24 in $164
- 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; 18 × 24 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/peter-bounetheau-si-saam-1946-3-2).