Artwork Details
- Title
- Ebenezer Williams
- Artist
- Unidentified
- Date
- ca. 1825
- Location
- Not on view
- Dimensions
- 2 1⁄2 x 2 in. (6.4 x 5.1 cm) oval
- Credit Line
- Museum purchase through the Catherine Walden Myer Fund
- Mediums
- Mediums Description
- watercolor on ivory
- Keywords
- Portrait male — Williams, Ebenezer — bust
- Object Number
- 1962.7.1
Artwork Description
Miniature paintings memorializing a friend or family member grew popular in the nineteenth century when the death of Prince Albert sent Queen Victoria into deep mourning. A name and death date on a locket, pin, or ring marked the passing of a loved one, and artists sometimes mixed a lock of the deceased person’s hair in with the pigment. The paintings often showed the bereaved person next to a tomb or cinerary urn, as in Mourning Locket for A. R. and Mourning Ring, and sometimes included symbols of grieving such as a dove or weeping willow.