Portret van een vrouw met een zwarte sjaal 1763 - 1813

Leonardus Temminck made this miniature portrait of a woman with watercolour on ivory, probably at the end of the 18th century. The small scale and intimate nature of this work point to a specific social function. Portrait miniatures such as this were fashionable in the late 1700s and were often kept as mementos or tokens of affection. Consider the implications: what does it mean to reduce a person to pocket size? This was an era in which the Enlightenment emphasis on reason and individual identity mixed uneasily with older class hierarchies. The institutions of art, like the market for miniatures, played an important role in how people negotiated these shifts. This portrait could reflect the growing importance of the individual, but also the commodification of human relationships. To fully understand this piece, we’d want to know more about the sitter, the artist, and the social circles in which these miniatures circulated. Research into family papers, auction records, and period correspondence could reveal the stories behind these tiny, intriguing objects.