Acknowledgments

Frank, Robin Jaffee

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Acknowledgments

Robin Jaffee Frank

Love and Loss: American Portrait and Mourning Miniatures

Acknowledgments

Author

Robin Jaffee Frank

PublisherYale University Art Gallery

PublisherYale University Press

Related print edition pages: pp.IX-XIII

https://doi.org/10.37862/aaeportal.00078.003

Stable URL: https://aaeportal.com/?id=-19049

Acknowledgments

When my colleagues and I first conceived of this book and the exhibition that would accompany it, our goal was to offer a history of American miniature painting using Yale’s collection as the armature. The story I tell here benefits from the quality and breadth of that collection, but also is circumscribed by its limits. The generosity of lenders made it possible to convey a fuller picture of the role of the miniature in America, but some important artists are inevitably omitted, and some regions of the country more strongly represented than others. Nonetheless, it is hoped that this in-depth investigation makes accessible previously hidden aspects of a little-understood art form and provides the groundwork for building an even more complete history of the miniature.

It has been a privilege for me to investigate these miniatures and the personal stories behind them over recent years. It is now an even greater joy to share them with a wider audience. This exhibition and accompanying catalogue are made possible through the enlightened generosity of The Henry Luce Foundation, Inc., and I would especially like to acknowledge Ellen Holtzman, who played a key role in encouraging this project from conception. The project is also supported in part by a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts, a Federal agency. Additional funding was provided by the Virginia and Leonard Marx Publication Fund and by Allen Wardwell, B.A. 1957, whose encouragement of the miniatures project continues a family tradition. Mr. Wardwell was the grandson of former Yale curator John Hill Morgan, who, along with his wife, Lelia, during the 1940s gave to the Yale University Art Gallery miniatures of exceptional beauty and significance. The Morgan collection—and the equally notable miniatures given by Francis P. Garvan, B.A. 1897, M.A. (Hon.) 1922, as part of the renowned Mabel Brady Garvan Collection in the 1930s—remain the backbone of Yale’s collection. Remarkable for its scope and diversity, that collection continues to grow, occasionally through selective purchases but primarily through the gifts of loyal alumni and other individuals dedicated to American arts at Yale.

The present exhibition affords the opportunity to present to the public more than a hundred portrait and mourning miniatures principally selected from the Yale collection and from the substantial promised bequest of Davida Tenenbaum Deutsch and Alvin Deutsch, Esq., LL.B. 1958. On a personal level, I am deeply indebted to Davida Deutsch for her exceptional depth of knowledge, generosity of spirit, and contagious love for these objects, gifts that she and her husband have so generously shared with all of us and with future generations.

We are indebted to our lenders for their generosity in parting with cherished objects and thus furthering the study of the American miniature. Gloria Manney and the Gibbes Museum of Art have lent exquisite miniatures from their distinguished collections that are critical to an understanding of the history of this art form. To exemplify the role miniatures played in private life, and the complex processes used to create them, we have received crucial loans of paintings showing people wearing or making miniatures from the Detroit Institute of Arts; the Maryland Historical Society, Baltimore; the Mead Art Museum at Amherst College, Massachusetts; and the New York State Historical Association, Cooperstown; as well as loans of artists’ tools from the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston; the New-York Historical Society; the Stamford Historical Society, Connecticut; and the Winterthur Museum, Delaware.

The farsighted generosity of the Getty Grant Program made it possible for the Art Gallery to engage Katherine G. Eirk, a leading expert in the field of miniatures conservation, to treat the watercolor-on-ivory miniatures in the Yale collection. The range and fragility of materials used in miniatures pose unique problems for museum professionals charged with their care. Ms. Eirk collaborated closely with me and my colleagues Helen A. Cooper, Theresa Fairbanks, chief conservator for works on paper, Mark Aronson, chief conservator for paintings, Patricia Garland, paintings conservator, and, on issues involving casework, Patricia E. Kane, curator of American decorative arts. The insight, enthusiasm, and dedication of Katherine Eirk and Theresa Fairbanks made close examination of these objects an especially rewarding process. It yielded previously unknown information about materials and techniques and led to the discovery of hidden dates, inscriptions, and signatures, in many instances raising and eventually resolving important questions.

It is a pleasure to be able to thank the many people who contributed to this exhibition and catalogue. First, the graduate students, an integral part of the American Arts Office, who served as interns and fellows, receive my heartfelt gratitude. During the past year, curatorial interns Dennis A. Carr and Diane Waggoner provided invaluable assistance in every aspect of the exhibition and publication, and I thank them for their many contributions. For research assistance at various stages in the project, my thanks to fellows Amy Kurtz, Jennifer Harper, Jordana Mendelson, Sarah K. Rich, Jennifer L. Roberts, Laura Simo, Manuela Thurner, Tavia Nyong’o Turkish, and Lyneise Williams. This project has benefited from their multiple perspectives, limitless energy, computer savvy, and sense of teamwork.

At the Yale University Art Gallery, many friends and colleagues assisted me. I greatly appreciate the efforts of Louisa Cunningham and Kathleen Derringer, associate directors; Susan Frankenbach, L. Lynne Addison, and Jennifer Bossman, registrar, associate, and assistant registrar, respectively; Mary Kordak and Ellen Alvord, curator and assistant curator of education, and Linda Jerolman, programs coordinator; John Pfannenbecker and his crew in security and visitor services; and Marie Weltzien, for coordinating public information and press coverage with inimitable grace. In the American Arts Office, Tracie Candelora, administrative assistant, gathered photographs and attended to innumerable details with efficiency and good humor. Bursary students Cynthia Matthews and Ying Tin Li also deserve my thanks for their constant willingness to help.

At Yale University Press, my thanks to Judy Metro and Mary Mayer for their encouragement and trust. I am most grateful to Susan Laity, whose wise and sensitive editorial pen improved the manuscript immeasurably.

For designing a book that responds so sympathetically to the small scale and private purpose of miniatures, my sincere thanks to John Gambell and Jenny Chan. My appreciation to John Robinson, Frances McMullen, and Tim Nighswander at GIST in New Haven for producing digital photographs that make vivid the painstaking art of miniature painting.

Conveying the private meanings of tiny works of art in a large public space is an impossible task. For accomplishing the impossible, my thanks to Chris Müller for his evocative exhibition design at Yale, enhanced by the subtle lighting effects of Robert Wierzel and multimedia elements by Carol Scully, director of the Digital Media Center for the Arts. I appreciate the efforts of Clark Crolius, coordinator for special exhibitions, Burrus Harlow, installations manager, and their excellent crews.

My work builds on the firm foundation of earlier publications on American portrait miniatures. I am indebted to the scholarship of Carol Aiken, Theodore Bolton, Robin Bolton-Smith, William Dunlap, Davida Tenenbaum Deutsch, Anne Sue Hirshorn, Dale T. Johnson, John Hill Morgan, Martha R. Severens, Susan Strickler, Ruel Pardee Tolman, Anne Ayer Verplanck, Harry B. Wehle and others whose contributions are cited in the notes.

Many colleagues contributed to my thinking about miniatures. For stimulating debates regarding attributions, I thank independent miniatures consultants Sarah D. Coffin and Elle Shushan. For illuminating the role of costume in portraiture, my thanks to Claudia Brush Kidwell, National Museum of American History, Smithsonian Institution, and Nancy Rexford, independent consultant. For making available objects in their care, I thank Carrie Rebora Barratt, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; Andrew Connors, formerly of the National Museum of American Art, Smithsonian Institution; Derick Dreher, Rosenbach Museum and Library, Philadelphia; Jeannine Falino and Erica E. Hirshler, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston; and Angela Mack, Gibbes Museum of Art, Charleston. For sharing information, I thank Carol Aiken, independent miniatures conservator; Anne E. Bentley, Massachusetts Historical Society, Boston; Alice S. Creighton, Nimitz Library, U.S. Naval Academy; C. Patton Hash, South Carolina Historical Society, Charleston; Ellen G. Miles, National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution; James W. Tottis, Detroit Institute of Arts; Kristen Weiss, Peabody Essex Museum, Salem, Massachusetts; and John Wilson, formerly of the Cincinnati Museum of Art.

My greatest and most treasured intellectual debt is to Helen A. Cooper, The Holcombe T. Green Curator of American Paintings and Sculpture at the Yale University Art Gallery. I began my curatorial training in American arts as a fellow working under her direction and, so many years later, I have pursued this topic under her sagacious eye. She remains my best critic, supporter, and friend. I would also like to express my gratitude to Jules D. Prown, Paul Mellon Professor of the History of Art Emeritus, who first introduced me to American art history and material culture, and set a standard of excellence for the field. I also owe special thanks to Jock Reynolds, The Henry J. Heinz II Director of the Art Gallery, for his energetic support and encouragement for this project.

I reserve my final thanks for my husband, Robert, and son, Jared. Writing this book about potent tokens of love often took me away, physically and mentally, from those I love most. For waiting for my return with patience and understanding, I dedicate this book to them.

Note to the reader: Works in the Yale University Art Gallery are designated “Yale” in the figure captions, while miniatures belonging to the Promised Bequest of Davida Tenenbaum Deutsch and Alvin Deutsch, LL.B. 1958, in honor of Kathleen Luhrs, are designated “Promised Deutsch Bequest.” Complete information on each work illustrated appears in the List of Illustrations.

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