Artist: James Peale (1749-1831)

Title: Portrait of Irenee Dubocq of Philadelphia, 1809

Medium: Watercolor on ivory, encased under glass in an unmarked gold frame.

Dimensions: 3 ¼ x 2 7/8 inches

Signed and Dated at lr: IP 1809

Verso: An oval of braided hair under clear glass surrounded by an inset of cobalt blue glass.

Fine original condition.

Provenance:
Private Collection  to Art Market (unknown artist and unknown sitter)
Fred R. Kline Gallery, Santa Fe (here identified)
to Elle Shushan, Philadelphia

Note: 

Fred R. Kline first identified the artist by James Peale's faint initials and discovered the identity of the sitter by comparative study of a painting by James Peale, Madame Dubocq and Her Four Children, 1807 ( Collection J.B. Speed Art Museum, Louisville, KY. & Illustrated p. 216, The Peale Family, Creation of a Legacy 1770-1870 ).  In this earlier portrait, Irenee, the eldest child, is holding a book to her mother’s left.  In the Peale portrait miniature, Irenee is two years older and still clearly resembling her younger self in the Speed portrait.  Based on documented examples, this 1809 portrait bears the latest known date for a James Peale portrait miniature and clearly refutes the suggestion that the artist’s eyesight was failing at this period.

SOLD