Girl in Green

This work characterizes the new approach to the portrait miniature during its twentieth-century renaissance. Unlike the sentimental, individualized objects of the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, revival miniatures functioned as aesthetic objects in their own right. Here the artist subordinates the sitter’s particular identity to her role as a design element in an overall arrangement of decorative patterns and jewel-like colors. The Brooklyn Museum led the way in institutional collecting of modern miniatures with the 1931 acquisition of seventeen work; as a result, the Museum’s holdings are especially strong in revival examples.