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Eye Miniature with Tears Set in a Brooch with Pearl Frame c.1800.
© Victoria and Albert Museum, London.
Eyes have long been thought of as the window of the soul alternately revealing
and concealing one’s deepest thoughts and feelings. Symbolically, the eye has
turned up as the all-seeing eye of God long used by the Masonic Order, the
French police adopted the watchful eye as a theme for buckles and belts and,
during the French Revolution, the Revolutionary party used it to signify a
member’s allegiance. During the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries,
a more innocent interpretation of the eye as a simple love token appeared on the
scene in the form of a miniature painting.
The Eye miniature of Marie-Caroline,
the Duchess of Aumale (1822-1869)
A “lover’s eye” miniature is a painted miniature of the giver’s eye, presented
to a loved one. The notion accompanying this very short-lived fad (c.1790
through 1820) was that the eye would be recognizable only to the recipient and
could, therefore, be worn publicly keeping the lover’s identity a secret. In
contradiction, however, portraits from the period rarely show the sitter overtly
wearing or holding an eye miniature thereby perhaps indicating that the wearers
concealed these intimate portraits from view to further guard their secrecy.
Eye Miniature in an Ivory Case with a Mirrored Lid c.1817.
© Victoria and Albert Museum, London.
Painted in watercolor on ivory or gouache on card, the miniatures were set in
rings, pendants, brooches, and lockets for women and various containers such as
snuff boxes and toothpick cases for men. A decorative border of burnished or
engraved gold, gems or pearls usually surround the portrait and often a hair
compartment was included on the reverse with a cipher or braided motif of the
dear one’s hair. Eye portraits were always rendered in miniature, ranging in
size from a few millimeters to a centimeter or two. The lack of any depiction of
further details of the face surrounding the eye miniature serves to envelop the
eye portrait with a great degree of anonymity. Gazing directly at the viewer,
there is little doubt as to the focus of such a portrait, which, as you can
imagine, could be quite intimate when the gaze is returned by the intended
recipient of the painting.
The Lover's Eye miniature of Maria Fitzherbert, made by Richard Cosway in 1786 for the Prince of Wales, later King George IV.
One popular theory as to the origin of the eye miniature purports that its roots
stem from the late Eighteenth Century when the flamboyant, style-setting Prince
of Wales was refused permission by his father, King George III, and by British
law to wed the widowed (and Catholic) Mrs. Maria Fitzherbert. The widow avoided
the Prince’s proposal by escaping to Europe. In order to keep his romance with
her a secret from the disapproving court and in an effort to bolster his
proposal, an eye miniature was conceived of and painted by Richard Cosway, a
popular court miniaturist. Apparently, the gift of his gaze did the trick and
they were secretly (and illegally) married. Cosway, in turn, painted the bride’s
eye in order that she might covertly present it to the Prince. Soon, other
British nobility followed the Prince’s lead and the trend spread to the
continent, taking Europe by storm.
Eye Miniature Set in a Brooch Garnet, Turquoise and Pearl Frame c.1800.
Another theory places eye miniatures as a product of France. According to Elle
Shushan in the Essay The Artist’s Eye:
On October 27, 1785, Horace Walpole wrote to the countess of Ossory, “When human
folly, or rather French folly can go so far, it would be trifling to instance a
much fainter silliness; but you know Madam, that the fashion now, is it not, to
have portraits but of an eye? They say ‘Lord don’t you know it?’ A Frenchman is
come over to paint eyes here.
There are further reports of eye miniatures painted by others as much as twelve
years prior to the Prince of Wales’s ocular gesture of love. Study of the fee
books meticulously kept by the prominent miniaturists of the period reveals
entries on the books for eye paintings well before Cosway’s famous example.
George Engleheart, miniaturist to King George III, (and rival of Cosway) records
twenty-three eye portraits from 1775 to 1813 in his ledger.
Cushion Shaped Eye Miniature Set in a Brooch with Pink Stone Frame c.1800.
© Victoria and Albert Museum.
Queen Victoria famously revived eye miniatures for use as presentation pieces.
Sir William Charles Ross was the Royal Miniaturist to the Queen and therefore
painted most of the eye portraits commissioned by her majesty. She ordered
portraits of her children and many of her friends and other relatives. The art
form was kept modestly alive through the early part of the twentieth century by
a few devoted followers of the style, mostly members of the royal family or the
aristocracy. Attempts were made by artists at the time to bring the fashion to
America with little success.
Crescent Shaped Eye
Miniature Set in a Pin/Pendant with Pearl Surround c.1800. © Victoria and Albert
Museum
In the early nineteenth century, eye miniatures had also evolved into a form of
memorial jewelry sometimes referred to as ‘tear jewelry.’ The purpose of the eye
portrait was refocused from secret love to remembrance. Decorated with a tear or
depicted as gazing through clouds, the miniatures evoked powerful sentiment.
Eye
miniatures with a memorial intention usually also incorporated hairwork. The
symbolism of the gemstones used to surround the portrait added to the sentiment.
Pearls often represented tears when they surrounded an eye portrait. Diamond, a
motif employed only by patrons with the means to pay for them, represented
strength and longevity. Coral is said to protect the wearer from harm, or
perhaps to protect the subject of the miniature from harm? Garnets were very
popular in Georgian jewelry and are said to have represented true friendship.
Turquoise‘s association with ocular health was an interesting choice both as a
surround for an eye miniature and a talisman for the wearer.
These very personal love tokens are very rare and highly prized.
Sources
-
Boettcher, Graham C. (editor). the Look of Love: Eye Miniatures from the Skier
Collection: D. Giles Ltd.: London, Birmingham Museum of Art, 2012.
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Dawes, Ginny Redington Dawes with Collings, Olivia. Georgian Jewellery:
1714-1830: Woodbridge, Suffolk, UK: Antique Collectors’ Club, 2007.
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Gere, Charlotte and Rudoe, Judy. Jewellery in the Age of Queen Victoria: A
Mirror to the World: London, The British Museum Press, 2010.
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Grootenboer, Hanneke. Treasuring the Gaze: Intimate Vision in Late
Eighteenth-Century Eye Miniatures: Chicago and London: University of Chicago
Press, 2012.
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Victoria and Albert Museum.
ϟ
30.Jun.2025
Publicado por
MJA
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