Engleheart, the son of a German plaster modeler who had settled in England, was born in Kew. As a youth, he worked in the studio of Sir Joshua Reynolds, teaching himself portraiture by making miniature copies of his master's works. He was miniature painter to George III from 1789. Engleheart was extremely prolific. His fee books, still in the collection of his descendants, show that he painted 4,853 miniatures in the almost forty years from 1775 until 1813. He maintained a high standard of quality throughout this strenuous practice.
A card at the miniature's back is inscribed in ink in a recent hand Sir / Ralph Woodford / By / R.Cosway / 1741–1821. / 214. Although once attributed to Richard Cosway, this miniature has long been recognized as a portrait by George Engleheart. An entry in his fee book records a portrait of Col. Woodford dating from 1788 (George C. Williamson and Henry L. D. Engleheart, George Engleheart, London, 1902, p. 118). It was painted on August 14, and the sitter paid ten guineas for it on August 26 as a large miniature. This may refer to the present miniature. The full name of the sitter is not yet known. The Joseph Woodford of Collis P. Huntington's catalogue (1897) has not been further identified. Sir Ralph Woodford, governor of Trinidad, whose name has been inscribed on the back, lived from 1784 to 1828 and cannot be the man portrayed here.
[2016; adapted from Reynolds and Baetjer 1996]
Collis P. Huntington, New York (by 1897–d. 1900; life interest to his widow, Arabella D. Huntington, later [from 1913] Mrs. Henry E. Huntington, 1900–d. 1924; life interest to their son, Archer Milton Huntington, 1924–terminated in 1926)
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Four Centuries of Miniature Painting," January 19–March 19, 1950, unnumbered cat. (p. 5, as "Sir Ralph Woodford, Governor of Trinidad").
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "European Miniatures in The Metropolitan Museum of Art," November 5, 1996–January 5, 1997, no. 148.
A Catalogue of Miniatures in the Collection of Collis P. Huntington. [New York], 1897, unpaginated, ill., as a portrait of Joseph Woodford by Richard Cosway.
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, pp. 11, 138–39, no. 148, ill., state that a "Col. Woodford" is recorded in Engleheart's fee book in 1788, tentatively connecting this entry with the present miniature; reject the identification of the sitter as Sir Ralph Woodford and note that the Joseph Woodford of the Huntington catalogue [see Ref. 1897] has not been further identified.
Sir Joshua Reynolds (British, Plympton 1723–1792 London)
1761–66
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