Lot 41: Attributed to Archibald Robertson (American, 1765-1835) Miniature Portrait of Obadiah Wright (1761-1843) of Brookfield, Massachusetts.

Attributed to Archibald Robertson (American, 1765-1835)

Miniature Portrait of Obadiah Wright (1761-1843) of Brookfield, Massachusetts. Unsigned, the subject identified in inscriptions on a 19th century note accompanying the miniature. Watercolor on ivory, 1 7/8 x 1 3/8 in., in an oval 10kt gold pendant case and Moroccan red leather hinged case. Condition: Very good.

Provenance: The Abbott family of Massachusetts.

Note: Obadiah Wright was born October 12, 1764, and was the fourth of nine children born to Ithamar Wright (1734-1813) and his wife Elizabeth (Walker) Wright (1730-1830). Obadiah's father served as captain of a militia company that responded to the "Lexington Alarm" on April 19, 1775, and subsequently served in a number of Revolutionary War engagements.

Scottish miniaturist Archibald Robertson, the artist this lot is attributed to, was trained at the Royal Academy and emigrated to the United States in 1791. He opened a drawing school in New York and received acclaim after he painted portraits of George and Martha Washington. He wrote the first comprehensive drawing manual in America, and his manner of using simple techniques such as short hatch marks allowing the ivory foundation to glow, and the use of fewer colors, changed miniature painting in America.

Literature: See American Portrait Miniatures in the Metropolitan Museum, Barratt and Zabar (Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2010), pp. 65-6, figure 115. A closely related work by Robertson depicts William Loughton Smith, c. 1795, and reflects the same compositional and stylistic treatment of the background sky, the delineation of the sitter's costume and hair, and the angular character of the nose as the portrait offered here.