Elle Shushan

01/02/2026

06/13/2023

Intriguing -

Providing a multitude of questions but very few answers. The portrait has a history. First documented 100 years ago by Basil Long, the Victoria & Albert Museum’s first portrait miniature specialist, Long theorized that the miniature was painted in the British West Indies. Donough O’Brien illustrated the portrait in his 1950 book ‘Miniatures in the 18th and 19th Centuries.’ O’Brien, with no evidence, surmised that “It is quite probable that it was painted in Jamaica.” Collector/dealer E. Grosvenor Paine owned it in the 1980s. Paine, who lived in New Orleans, was positive, again with no proof, that it must have originated there. The questions continue…

See this fascinating miniature at the ADA/Historic Deerfield Antique Show this weekend, June 17 & 18.

.shushan

04/23/2023

“In the 17th and 18th century Europe, Black children trafficked from the African continent were used in visual art as a prop to highlight both the wealth and whiteness of their European enslavers. A regular feature of this Black child adornment was to add an expensive pearl earring to their decoration. The enslaved child was not seen as a person, but as property that signified the wealth of the people or family who commissioned the portrait performance.”
—-Marjorie H. Morgan/ArtUK
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By Thomas Rowlandson - yes - that Rowlandson, the celebrated Georgian caricaturist, famed for his b***y satirical and political cartoons. Rowlandson had studied at the Royal Academy, producing a small number of strong portraits before turning to illustration.
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Thomas Rowlandson (London, 1756-1827). Watercolor over pencil, signed, circa 1785.
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See this lovely child at The Philadelphia Show, at the Philadelphia Museum of Art, April 27-30.
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$18thCentury

01/19/2023

“Fake or Fashion: The Eternal Fascination with Eye Portraits” presented by Elle Shushan and Graham Boettcher, Friday, January 20th, 3:30-5:00 PM at The Winter Show, Park Avenue @ 67th Street.

04/28/2022

Happy Puppy! The Philadelphia Show opens tonight! Located on the iconic “Rocky Steps” of the Philadelphia Museum of Art - the most magnificent vista in the city, for the show’s 60th anniversary, a new era begins.
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A Parson Russell terrier, circa 1910.
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12/31/2021

#2022 ’tLookBack

11/29/2021

“How to Spend It”!

Thanks !
👁👁👁👁👁👁👁👁👁👁👁

07/13/2020

It’s happening! “The Look of Love II; Eye Miniatures from the Skier Collection.” Spectacular new pieces, fresh information about the eyes in volume I, and finally - the definitive explanation of the rumors about the Prince, Mrs. Fitzherbert and their eye portraits. New essays are by Dr. Stephen Lloyd, the acknowledged expert on Richard Cosway, R.A., and Dr. Graham Boettcher, director of the Birmingham Museum of Art. I will discuss the history of eye portraits and the predominance of modern fakes. D. Giles Ltd, London - the publishers of volume I, are reprising their superb work for a Spring/Summer 2021 release.
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J.C.D. Engleheart (1784-1862) Portrait of a Left Eye set in diamonds, inscribed & dated 1819. Skier Collection.
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Cosway

03/19/2020

Of course Charleston-born Ralph Izard considered himself British. Educated at Eton and Cambridge, he returned to America only long enough to select a wife with a pedigree equal to his own. In 1771, he and Alice DeLancey settled in London. There they had their miniatures painted - by the King’s miniaturist - of course. But soon the seismic shift in politics and Izard’s loyalties would send the family first to Paris where Izard served the new country as Commissioner to the Court of Tuscany, and then back to the United States, where he represented South Carolina first in the Continental Congress and then as Senator. After Izard’s death in 1804, Alice and her daughter Margaret Izard Manigault, by then living in Philadelphia, led the Republican Court, the most influential political salon in America.
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Jeremiah Meyer, RA (1735-1789) Portraits of Ralph Izard, Alice DeLancey Izard & Margaret Izard, circa 1774.
From the spectacular Gibbes Museum of Art collection

To be seen in the San Antonio Museum of Art exhibition, “British Luxury; The British Revolution in Decorative Arts, 1715-1840.”
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AliceDeLanceyIzard

03/10/2020

How does an artist with the astounding talent of Samuel Fanshaw simply disappear? Not from life - he had children and grandchildren - but from the American artistic galaxy where he was a rising star. Already calling himself a miniaturist when he entered the National Academy School, Fanshaw knew his artistic calling. He was elected Associate of the National Academy in 1841, exhibiting a portrait of miniaturist and Academy founder member Nathaniel Rogers. The same year Fanshaw was commissioned by former schoolmate and future president of the National Academy, Daniel Huntington, to paint this sumptuous portrait of Huntington’s fiancée, Sophie Richards. And then...? Today there are only 5 recorded miniatures by Fanshaw. Why?
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Samuel Fanshaw, portrait of Sophie Richards, signed & dated 1841.
From the remarkable collection of the Philadelphia Museum of Art.

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03/03/2020

”...a sartorial fop of prowess, a notable eccentric, claiming to have had several sittings from the Virgin Mary for her picture, and a personal friend of George, Prince of Wales, was even better fitted than Lawrence to present sympathetically the ‘bel ideal’ in Regency faces.” - artist Richard Cosway as profiled by David Piper in “The English Face.” Such was Cosway’s fame that even the priggish Prime Minister, William Pitt, morally opposed to both the lifestyle and politics of the Prince, Cosway and their cronies, was still compelled to have his miniature painted by the infamous artist.
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Richard Cosway, R.A., William Pitt the Younger, circa 1790.
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From the spectacular Latter-Schlesinger Collection in the New Orleans Museum of Art.
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