A PAIR OF PORTRAIT MINIATURES
Watercolor on Ivory
American
Attributed to Abijah Canfield (1769-1830)
1 5/8” D 6” x 6” overall
This pair of allegorical images of Lady Liberty can be attributed to Canfield based on a signed miniature and a larger similar patriotic image in the collection of the Henry Ford Museum. Both are loosely based on the 1796 print by Edward Savage of Liberty in the Form of the Goddess of Youth and images of Lady Liberty in a number of other allegorical works. In discussing of Winterthurs”s painting of Liberty Displaying the Arts and Sciences (1792) Museum Director Edgar Richchards noted that: ” Allegory and symbolism appear rarely in American art. They seeem not to be native to our prevailing forms of thought, except when there arises some special urge to give symbolic shape to our ideals. Such an urge was strongly felt at the beginning of the Republic, when symbols like the Great Seal, Columbia as the Genius of America, and the Godess of Liberty were created to represent a new nation and its governmnent.” These miniatures are excellent expamples of this special urge utilizing Lady Liberty to symbolize these ideals.
