Houston Museum will present love tokens, portrait miniatures from the Caroline A. Ross collection from November 3, 2007 to March 2, 2008.
Miniatures are the product of a specialized branch of portrait painting in which the image is usually made small enough to fit into the palm of the hand. Traditionally, the painted image was put into a case, fashioned by a silversmith or goldsmith and set with precious stones. It was then worn as a locket or pendant. As a form, they were used historically as documentary records in pre-photographic times, testimonies to political allegiance or, as they are most known, tokens of love, be it for a spouse, child or even a monarch.
In a very generous bequest by her heirs in 2005, the portrait miniature collection of Miss Caroline A. Ross was given to Rienzi, the European decorative arts wing of the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston. The 246 piece collection contains beautiful examples of the art as executed by European and American miniaturists from the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.
The picture shows Adam Buck, Portrait of a Woman, 1805, 2005.1631, The MFAH, The Rienzi Collection, bequest of Caroline A. Ross. -- www.mfah.org
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