Thomas Seir Cummings Portrait Miniature c1838
Directory: Fine Art: Paintings: Miniatures: Pre 1837 VR: Item # 1461802
Please refer to our stock # a1837 when inquiring.
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A superb miniature portrait of a handsome blue-eyed gentleman. Presented in a cast foliate frame with a hair tress in the glazed aperture on the reverse. Excellent condition. 2 3/8" by 2".
BIOGRAPHICAL NOTE: Thomas Seir Cummings was born in England in 1804, and was taken to NYC as a child, where he remained until he retired in 1866. He died in NJ in 1894. Cummings became a student of Henry Inman in 1821 and after three years went into partnership with him, which lasted several years. With other artists including Nathaniel Rogers, Asher Durand, Henry Inman and S.F.B. Morse, he founded the National Academy of Design in 1826. Cummings later became one of the most successful miniaturists in the second quarter of the 19th century, and his works are in virtually every important museum in the U.S.
One of his most famous pieces (shown in the fourth photo), a work truly unique in the world of miniatures, is a bracelet he made with portraits of the first 9 children (of the eventual 14) that he and his wife, Jane Cook, had.
