Portrait of Constantine Phipps
Medium
watercolor on ivory in a later gold and woven hair bracelet
Dimensions
unframed: 3.8 × 3.2 cm · framed: 4.6 × 4.1 cm
Classification
Portrait Miniature
Department
European Painting and Sculpture
Museum
Cleveland Museum of Art
Credit
The Edward B. Greene Collection
Accession Number
1951.437
Rights
Public Domain
Tags
About this artwork
John Smart painted the British gentleman Constantine Phipps (1746–1797) at the age of twenty-four, executing this portrait in 1770, the year following the death of the sitter’s father, Constantine Phipps (1710?–1769), and preceding his marriage to Elizabeth Tierney (d. 1832). Phipps the younger was the second son of a landowner and lived throughout England and France. In 1788 he moved his family to Caen, Normandy, hoping to educate his ten (eventually thirteen) children more economically. Phipps...