Artist: James Peale (1749-1831)

Title:Portrait of Irenee Dubocq of Philadelphia, 1809

Date: 1605

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)
Elle Shushan, Philadelphia

Note:  Fred R. Kline first identified the artist and discovered the identity of the sitter.  See: 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 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