Bowdoin College Museum of Art | - Portrait of Elizabeth Bowdoin, Lady Temple

Preview image of work. watercolor on ivory, Portrait of Elizabeth Bowdoin, Lady Temple 3642

1951.8

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Portrait of Elizabeth Bowdoin, Lady Temple

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Artist

Edward Greene Malbone (Newport, Rhode Island, 1777 - 5/7/1807, Savannah, Georgia)

Title

Portrait of Elizabeth Bowdoin, Lady Temple

Creation Date

ca. 1804

Century

19th century

Dimensions

3 1/8 in. x 2 1/2 in. (7.94 cm x 6.35 cm)

Object Type

miniature

Creation Place

North America, United States

Medium and Support

watercolor on ivory

Credit Line

Gift of Mrs. Dorothy Hupper in honor of President and Mrs. Kenneth C. M. Sills

Copyright

Public Domain

Accession Number

1951.8

The intimate portrait miniature, an artistic tradition imported from England, reached its height of popularity in America in the early decades of the nineteenth century. Born in Rhode Island, Edward Greene Malbone sought clients in cities from Boston to Charleston. His fine likenesses on ivory of James Bowdoin III, the College’s founder, and his sister Elizabeth Bowdoin Temple reveal his talent as the leading miniaturist of his time. A costly material prized for its creamy color, natural beauty, and translucence, ivory was thinly sliced from tusk or whalebone. With advances in sea trade, elephant ivory was exported from East Africa in ever increasing amounts. Harvesting elephant tusks was slave-dependent and hundreds of thousands of Africans are believed to have died in this trade. As demand for ivory continued into the 1800s, it decimated the African elephant.

Keywords: portraits