John Wood Dodge Miniature Painting c1850
Directory: Fine Art: Paintings: Miniatures: Pre 1900: Item # 1359782
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A miniature portrait painting by John Wood Dodge of a U.S. naval officer, his position as such identified by the scarf and silver buttons on his jacket. He is posed wearing his glasses, which is rarely seen in portraits. The backing paper of the ivory contains the following information in Dodge's hand:
"Painted by/John W. Dodge/Feb 1850/Natchez Miss".
Based on the detailed records that Dodge kept of his commissions, the sitter is one of three possible men - James Metcalf, David Ker, or Mr. Ernest. Presented in a stand-up frame with a gilt metal mat around the painting.
The miniature, as would be expected of Dodge's work, is superbly executed, and has no cracks, bowing, paint loss, or any other condition problems. The dark spots and the white spots or lines shown in the first photo are dirt specks or dust on the glass, and do not show in the second photo, which is a direct, unretouched scan. The sight size of the painting is 2 3/4" in length and 2" in width, with the frame measuring 5 1/4" by 4 1/4".
NOTE: John Wood Dodge was born in New York City in 1807. Dodge was apprenticed to a sign painter, under whom he began to copy, then paint, original miniatures. When his apprenticeship ended, he rented a studio. During the winter of 1826-27, he studied at the National Academy of Design. He exhibited there from 1830 to 1838, and was elected an associate member in 1832. In the early 1830s William Dunlap wrote that Dodge "stands among the prominent professors of the art of painting portrait miniatures in New York."
Highly acclaimed for his work, Dodge's most popular engraved portraits were of Andrew Jackson and Henry Clay. Dodge's miniature of Jackson, painted in 1842, met with instant approval. He painted it for his own use and took it to Washington for exhibition at the Library of Congress and then on to New York City, where he had it engraved by Moseley Isaac Danforth . This engraving was used as the basis for the United States two-cent "Black Jack" postage stamp issued in 1863. Dodge painted a number of smaller portraits of Jackson for Jackson's admirers. Prints of various works by Dodge enjoyed great commercial popularity.
Dodge died of pneumonia in 1893, at the age of eighty-six. His works are highly collected and appear in the collections of most major U.S. museums.
