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John Tuffs

ca. 1861
Not on view
During Saint-Gaudens’s years as a cameo cutter’s apprentice, he helped his employer meet the demand for carved shell broaches, bracelets, and other wearable keepsakes. The delicately-rendered portrait of New York attorney John Tuffs (1812-1859) is believed to be his earliest surviving work. A posthumous portrait likely based on a daguerreotype, it presents the sitter in a technically challenging three-quarter pose. The young apprentice dutifully conveyed the details of Tuff’s dress and the thin wisps of his hair, yet with equal precision he naively depicted Tuffs’s wandering left eye. More than ten years after ordering the portrait of her husband, Hannah Rohr Tuffs (1829-1905) commissioned her pendant cameo (1990.78.2a,b) when visiting Rome with her sister. The pair is housed in original velvet-lined leather cases.

Artwork Details

Object Information
  • Title: John Tuffs
  • Artist: Augustus Saint-Gaudens (American, Dublin 1848–1907 Cornish, New Hampshire)
  • Date: ca. 1861
  • Culture: American
  • Medium: Shell
  • Dimensions: 1 3/4 x 1 1/2 in. (4.5 x 3.8 cm)
  • Credit Line: Purchase, Sheila W. and Richard J. Schwartz Gift and Morris K. Jesup Fund, 1990
  • Object Number: 1990.78.1a, b
  • Curatorial Department: The American Wing

More Artwork

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Eva Rohr, Augustus Saint-Gaudens American, Marble, American
Eva Rohr
Augustus Saint-Gaudens
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Hannah Rohr Tuffs, Augustus Saint-Gaudens American, Shell, American
Hannah Rohr Tuffs
Augustus Saint-Gaudens
1872
Anna Watson Stuart, Daniel Huntington American, Oil on canvas, American
Anna Watson Stuart
Daniel Huntington
ca. 1862
Cameo, George W. Jamison American, Helmet-conch shell, gold, and enamel, American
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George W. Jamison
William Rose
ca. 1835
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B.H. Kinney
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