Description:
Born in Philadelphia, Benbridge studied in London and in Rome under Anton Raphael Mengs and Pompeo Batoni. In 1772, the artist settled in Charleston, where he became the city`s fashionable portraitist after Jeremiah Theus died in 1774. This miniature exhibits Benbridge`s colorful, linear, and crisply realistic portrait style, which is remarkably similar to that of John Singleton Copley. Dating from about 1770, it is one of the artist`s earliest efforts in the medium, yet it shows more refinement than a number of his later works. The case, which is set with amethysts that match the gentleman`s lavendar waistcoat, is original to the piece.