Collections record Beta

Portrait Miniature - Mrs. Eliza Colden

2016-38-8 a,b

Watercolor on ivory portrait miniature of Mrs. Eliza Colden by Anson Dickinson. Bust portrait of an elderly woman wearing a black or dark brown dress with a white shawl and white bonnet. Facing front against a background of dark brown and copper hues. Oval portrait set in a copper locket under convex glass, with loop at top. Back of locket has hair reverse containing Mrs. Colden's hair in a weaved pattern. Small, incised signature on the miniature off of the left shoulder, reading "Dickinson/1805," but is barely visible. B - Outer case for locket. Oval album case of red leather with silk lining and hook clasps.

Part of a group of Colden Family miniatures. A "Mrs. Colden/Williamston" is found in Dickinson's account book at the end of 1805.

Born in Milton, a village in the town of Litchfield, Anson Dickinson began advertising himself as a miniature painter in 1802. He traveled to New York in 1804, where he was painted by Edward Greene Malbone, the leading American miniaturist of his day. Dickinson painted over 1,500 miniatures over the course of fifty years, traveling as far as Canada and South Carolina to paint. He kept a studio in New York for a period, and returned frequently to Litchfield where he painted prominent residents and students of the Female Academy and Law School.

• Dickinson, Anson, 1779-1852

1805

Overall Height 4", Width 2.75"

• ivory
• watercolor
• silk
• copper
• glass
• leather