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English: Peter Kennedy
Scottish Novelist Jane Porter (1775-1850),
Depicted as the Abbess of Burnham Abbey,
a Character in One of Her Books
English
dated 1836
by Peter Kennedy (unlisted artist)
(inscribed to the reverse, "Lady Jane Porter /
as a Lady Abbess / on marble / Peter Kennedy / 1836")
3 1/2 x 4 3/8 inches (sight); full frame measures 6 1/2 x 8 1/2 inches
watercolor on marble; housed under glass in a gilt wood and gesso frame
About the Portrait: Miss Jane Porter was a widely read author in her time. It is said that even Queen Victoria was a fan of her work. Over the 25 year period of 1799-1824, she published seven novels. She also co-authored several additional works with her sister, Anna Maria Porter (1780-1832). One such co-authored work was a two-volume collection of stories titled, "Tales Round a Winter Hearth", published in London in 1826. In Volume II can be found Jane Porter's delightful tale titled, "The Pilgrimage of Bernice, a Record of Burnham Abbey", written from the perspective of the Reverend Mother of Saint Magdalen's at Jerusalem, Abbess of Burnham Abbey; and it is as this character that Jane Porter was depicted in this miniature portrait.
Little is known of the painter, Peter Kennedy, who is not listed in any indices or encyclopedic volumes of artists. It is clear, however, that he painted this miniature (although somewhat naively) after an earlier work by George Henry Harlow (1787-1819), pictured below. It is interesting to note that Harlow died seven years before "The Pilgrimage of Bernice" was published. One naturally assumes, therefore, that Porter must have afforded Harlow an opportunity to read an early manuscript of the work. This is not surprising, given that Harlow was quite familiar with the Porter family. He is known, in fact, to have exhibited portraits of both Jane and one of her brothers, in 1809, at the Royal Academy in London. He is also known to have painted two additional portraits of Jane, one published in 1811, and the other in 1815. One imagines that Harlow intended to paint a more larger, more detailed portrait of Porter as an Abbess, based on this drawing.
It would be fair to say that Kennedy's miniature of Porter is naively painted -- lacking the depth that Harlow surely would have intended his final version of the portrait to have. Dating to 1836, however, it is an antique of historical value and also serves as a rare example of a miniature painted on marble, as opposed to ivory or vellum.
Drawing by George Henry Harlow (1787-1819) of Jane Porter as the Abbess
of Burnham Abbey. This undated drawing (which measures 6 3/4 x 8 1/2 inches)
was likely made as a preparatory sketch to be used as the basis of a larger oil painting.
A holding of the National Portrait Gallery, London.
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