ARAMENTA DIANTHE VAIL (active 1837-1845)*

Self-Portrait and Portrait of her Son

Details

ARAMENTA DIANTHE VAIL (active 1837-1845)*
Vail, Aramenta
Self-Portrait and Portrait of her Son
Aramenta Vail, seated in black dress with white lace collar and necklace decorated with a portrait miniature of her son, her dark brown hair in ringlets; her son, facing left in black jacket, white shirt, black tied cravat, his brown hair parted on the side.

The artist pictures herself wearing the portrait of her son offered here.

Signed A.D. Vail, artist, 449 Broadway
watercolor on ivory
3 x 2in. her Self-Portrait; 1.7/8 x 1.3/8in. her son (2)

Lot Essay

Despite the brief period during which Vail is know to have worked, she was nonetheless an active exhibitor of her paintings in miniature. A resident of Newark, New Jersey between 1837 and 1838, Vail moved to New York City in 1839, where she displayed her work at the National Academy of Design, the Apollo Institute and the American Academy between 1839 and 1845.

In the self-portrait illustrated here, Vail wears a portrait miniature she painted of her son at the base of her lace collar. That smaller portrait miniature is included in this lot.