tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28102666.post4412156010065336121..comments2024-03-14T13:25:20.613-05:00Comments on Boston 1775: A Miniature Henry KnoxUnknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28102666.post-41737443400631821492014-03-22T11:20:23.163-05:002014-03-22T11:20:23.163-05:00Nancy Loane of Valley Forge sent along a helpful q...Nancy Loane of Valley Forge sent along a helpful quotation from a letter from Gen. Nathanael Greene to his wife Caty in June 1778: “Mrs. Knox has been in Philadelphia and is now gone to Morristown. She is fatter than ever, which is a great mortification to her. The General is equally fat, and therefore one cannot laugh at the other.”<br /><br />That suggests Lucy Knox was already known for being plump in the 1777-78 winter when Caty Greene visited her husband, but put on even more weight in the following months. And that Henry was also fat by that year. J. L. Bellhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15405157000473731801noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28102666.post-37473406324570625502014-03-22T11:15:50.536-05:002014-03-22T11:15:50.536-05:00That comment speaks to something we always have to...That comment speaks to something we always have to remember about eighteenth-century portraits: they're paintings, not photographs. So even though they can seem very realistic and individual, the artist wasn't necessarily recreating what he saw. He could paint an individual's head onto a generic body, or paint the head more flatteringly. <br /><br />The fact that the same painter, Charles Willson Peale, portrayed Henry Knox's face much more plumply around 1784 than around 1778 suggests that he did see a difference, and the general accepted it. But perhaps Peale shaved a few pounds off Knox in the first portrait as the young general thought he could shed that weight. We can't know for sure. J. L. Bellhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15405157000473731801noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28102666.post-71159472288363630352014-03-22T08:33:21.607-05:002014-03-22T08:33:21.607-05:00The Knox portrait got me thinking about the 'h...The Knox portrait got me thinking about the 'hand in waistcoat' gesture seen in many 18th century paintings. <br /><br />In addition to its classical allusions, the pose not only sped up the painting process, but I suspect, could also be employed, if neeeded, to help mask a seated subject's prominent belly. Add to that a painter's need to flatter his subject, and I would not be surprised to find Knox was actually considerably heftier than his portrait implies.G. Lovelynoreply@blogger.com