  About the Artwork
  
  
  Occasions such as marriages, long trips, and births prompted commissions of portrait miniatures. The ring on the top of this locket suggests that its owner might have worn it as a piece of jewelry suspended from a chain or pinned to a blouse or jacket.

This miniature is unsigned but is thought to have been painted by Clarissa Peters, one of the most successful miniature painters active in Boston, Massachusetts, in the mid-1800s. She married another painter of miniatures, Moses B. Russell, in 1839. As was a common practice with married miniaturists, the Russells often worked as a team, with Moses painting adults, especially men, and Clarissa depicting women, girls, and infants.
  
  
  Title
  Portrait Miniature
  
  
  Artwork Date
  early 19th - mid 19th century
  
  Artist
  Clarissa Peters Russell
  
  
  
  Life Dates
  1809 - 1854
  
  
  
  
  Nationality
  
  
  
  Please note:
  Definitions for nationality may vary significantly, depending on chronology and world events.
  Some definitions include:
  Belonging to a people having a common origin based on a geography and/or descent and/or tradition and/or culture and/or religion and/or language, or sharing membership in a legally defined nation.
  
  
  
  American
  
  
  
  Culture
  
  
  
  Please note:
  Cultures may be defined by the language, customs, religious beliefs, social norms, and material traits of a group.
  
  
  
  
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  Medium
  Watercolor on ivory
  
  
  Dimensions
  Overall: 2 3/4 × 2 inches (7 × 5.1 cm)
  
  
  Classification
  Miniatures
  
  
  Department
  American Art before 1950
  
  
  Credit
  Museum Purchase, Edward E. Rothman Fund
  
  
  
  Accession Number
  
  
  
  This unique number is assigned to an individual artwork as part of the cataloguing process at the time of entry into the permanent collection.
  Most frequently, accession numbers begin with the year in which the artwork entered the museum’s holdings.
  For example, 2008.3 refers to the year of acquisition and notes that it was the 3rd of that year. The DIA has a few additional systems—no longer assigned—that identify specific donors or museum patronage groups.
  
  
  
  2023.668
  
  
  Copyright
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