Saturday

Trueworthy, J - portrait of 20C man


Although this miniature portrait is unsigned, it was purchased along with the adjacent signed portrait by J Trueworthy. The sitter is identified on the rear as Sir James Raye, but I can find nothing about him, so the name may be wrong or miss-spelled. 806

A kind visitor has written to say;
Recently I ran across your blog site 20c American Miniatures. Interested in your portrait from artist Jesse or J Trueworthy. She is my great aunt. She grew up in Boston, Mass. Delighted to see your interest in miniatures, as we grew up hearing the stories of her life as an artist. If I get around to looking through my memorabilia, I'll be sure to send a photo or two of what is available. She passed on in the mid 1970's, lived a long and healthy life. Much of her works went to our large family here on the West Coast, so not sure what else is available to show.

That kind message has prompted me to add some more items about Jessie Trueworthy which I should have added a very long time ago! When the portrait was purchased all the items here came with it. From memory the eBay seller said they were purchased as a group as part of the contents of an abandoned storage locker.

Five of the images are especially interesting as they indicate how Jessie prepared her miniatures. Starting from the top right is a simple passport sized photo/ Next to can be seen an oval drawn on a copy of he photograph. Next again is a cut out oval.

On the second line on the right the image has been copied from the oval onto tracing paper. Then there are signs of heavy impressions on the tracing paper, presumably to leave some kind of outline marks on the round ivory blank which has then been painted with watercolours. The other portraits were unidentified.

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