Woman in a Red Dress1821
This miniature is housed in an elegant red leather case with a green velvet lining, colors that compliment the sitter’s pale complexion and richly colored gown. More about this work
About this work
This miniature is housed in an elegant red leather case with a green velvet lining, colors that compliment the sitter’s pale complexion and richly colored gown. Although the cut of her bodice is more restrained than an English dress might be, the sitter wears her hair piled high and curled in ringlets around her face, like many English women of the day.
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.
Anna Claypoole Peale
born Philadelphia, PA 1791-died Philadelphia, PA 1878
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
- 1999.27.29
- 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
