Notes
This miniature oil portrait of Patrick Henry has an unknown provenance appropriate to the mystery surrounding Patrick Henry's portraiture in general. Few surviving portraits of Patrick Henry exist, but several legends and rumors of miniatures and paintings have disappeared.
The Patrick Henry Descendants' Branch purchased the miniature for the PHMF in November 2009 from Bruce Gimelson, an art and antique dealer, through a private collector who remained anonymous. The original owner provided no provenance or documentation for the miniature. Bruce Gimelson guaranteed the watercolor was painted before 1825. The brass case was crafted by the Wiebold Studio in Cincinnati, Ohio, a conservation firm specializing in the creation of cases and the restoration of miniatures.
The miniature bears a likeness to Henry, as depicted by John Barton Longacre in the early 19th century. This original painting is lost, and the only record of it is an engraving of the painting by E. Wellmore, which was reproduced in James Herring's "National Portrait Gallery of Distinguished Americans" in 1835. The artist signed this miniature, "J. Smart," but nothing is known about this artist.
Virginius Cornick Hall Jr. describes the history and legends surrounding the known portraits of Patrick Henry in "Notes on Patrick Henry Portraiture," published in the Virginia Magazine of History and Biography, Vol. 71, No. 2, April 1963. In this article, he describes several lost portraits of Patrick Henry, one of which matches the description and date of this piece.
The lost miniature described by Virginius Cornick Hall belonged to the Fontaine family, descendants of Patrick Henry. William Winston Fontaine tells this anecdote concerning the miniature while relating an account of Union troops' pillage of the family home in 1863. This account was published in the William and Mary Quarterly, 1st series, XIX, 181. "Aunt Rachel, a favored maid-servant of my mother...saw a Federal officer pick up from the debris between the double parlors, the pile still reeking with kerosene, a small likeness of Governor Henry. She went up to him and requested that he give the likeness to her, as her mistress prized it highly, because it was her mistress's grandfather. The officer refused, saying: 'You are telling me a falsehood. This is Patrick Henry.' 'Well, she is Patrick Henry's granddaughter; for she is the youngest child of his daughter, Mrs. Elizabeth Aylett.' On further questioning her, the officer became convinced, and gave her the likeness." Since the Fontaine family owned none of the known portraits of Patrick Henry, this indicates the existence of another likeness, which may be this miniature signed by J. Smart.
Despite these historical speculations, a precise and documented provenance for this piece has yet to be discovered. The only time the piece is known to have appeared for public sale was in two eBay auctions in 2003—the first from Garth's Auctions on August 29, 2003, and the second from Early American Auctions on December 14, 2003. The owner of the miniature between 2003 and the foundation's acquisition of it in 2009 is unknown.