Dating the Portrait Miniature

To determine when an artwork was created – in this case, the portrait miniature — we analyze and compare clothing and hairstyles with fashion plates, photographs and other portraits with known dates.  Surprisingly, men’s clothing is usually easier to date than women’s. Men who commission portraits pay close attention to collar height, tie width, and suit cut.  Such details can date a portrait precisely.

Men’s clothing changed dramatically in the ten decades of the 19^th century, evolving from  leggings with tights, colorful jackets and vests to a semblance of the business suit worn throughout the 20^th century. The transition began in the mid-1840s.  The change was subtle and slow but clearly visible by the early 1850s.

The dates previously suggested to the owner by experts in miniatures were 1835 to 1850 – just before and during the transitional period.  We studied dozens of fashion plates for those years but all proved useless. The subject of the portrait miniature was not a fashionable man.  For the sitter’s general style, we found the best fit in portraits: in George Caleb Bingham’s William Curtis Skinner, 1836, and John Vanderlyn’s Francis Lucas Waddell, circa 1837,  Collar height was higher in those years, but the similarities gave us pause. No waistcoat, loose clothing. That was how a man would dress on a hot day. The years might be different, but the season was the same – summer.

We still needed to pin down the date with photographs and portraits. Our comparative criteria were limited by the head and shoulders pose to:

1. Height of the jacket collar
2. Height of the shirt collar
3. Width of the neckerchief
4. Curled hairstyle
5. Lack of facial hair

We compiled an array of images by year and compared each year’s array with the portrait miniature. We created an evaluation tool, a score and a percentage.

After examining literally hundreds of images, we found the best fit in the years 1840-1842.

Now we knew the date was summer 1840-1842. Who was the artist? (To be continued.)

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