American Artist: Anson Dickinson

Early American Gentleman, Identified as
'M. W. Potter', Depicted in Profile View

American
circa 1810-1815
by Anson Dickinson (1779-1852)*

3/4 x 7/8 inches (sight)

watercolor on ivory; housed under glass (which has suffered a scratch over the subject's hair and forehead) in a gilt copper, pendant-style case, adorned with seed pearls and engraved 'M. W. Potter' to the reverse.

*Firm attribution based on comparison to other very small profile portraits known to have been painted by Dickinson -- most notably, a miniature of Robert Broome (ca. 1810) in the collection of the Smithsonian American Art Museum.

A view of the reverse of the portrait miniature's pendant-style
case, which bears the engraved name of 'M. W. Potter"

Other portraits in the Tormey-Holder Collection by Anson Dickinson
(click photo for larger view and additional information):

Early Nineteenth Century American Couple
of New Haven, Connecticut

Jacksonian Era Gentleman

Early Nineteenth Century American Lady

Elderly, Early Nineteenth Century American Lady
Wearing a Ruffled Bonnet and a Dark Colored Shawl

Jacksonian Era Boy in Formal Attire

Ambrose Dickinson (1783-1806), Brother of the Artist,
Painted Two and a Half Months before His Twentieth Birthday