A Woman with the Initials MCC

Bogle studied at the Drawing School, Glasgow, and practiced as a miniature painter in Edinburgh and London. He sent works to the Royal Academy from 1772 until 1794. The austerity of his portraits epitomizes the difference between the Scottish and English styles of miniature painting in the late eighteenth century.

The gilt metal frame has been made into a brooch by the addition of a pin. The back of the frame is engraved MCC. It is not a pair with 40.186.1, since the two miniatures are of different sizes and were painted at different times. But both sitters have a final initial C in their names, suggesting that they may represent two members of the same family, perhaps husband and wife.

[2016; adapted from Reynolds and Baetjer 1996]

Inscription: Signed and dated (right, in brown): I · B / 1773

Mrs. S. M. Breckenridge Long (until 1940)

New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "European Miniatures in The Metropolitan Museum of Art," November 5, 1996–January 5, 1997, no. 143.

Graham Reynolds with the assistance of Katharine Baetjer. European Miniatures in The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Exh. cat., The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, 1996, p. 137, no. 143, ill., note that this miniature and 40.186.1 do not form a pair, since they are different sizes and were painted in different years, but that the final initial "C" inscribed on both may indicate that the sitters are members of the same family, perhaps husband and wife.