American Portrait Miniature of a Woman in a White Gown, Thomas Story Officer

The American portrait miniature signed by Thomas Story Officer depicts a beautiful young woman, her red hair “Coeffure a la Chinoise”, sitting in a red chair confidently looking out towards the painter and us, the viewers.  She wears a white dress with a pin in the center of her chest.  Based on her style of dress and her hair, we believe this was painted while Officer was in Philadelphia.

It is signed to the lower right “T.S. Officer, Pinxt” along at edge.

The reverse has a small oval glass

Dimensions: 3 inches high x 2 3/16 inches wide x 1/4 inch deep

Reference: Thomas S. Officer: Miniature and Portrait Painter, Gardner Library,
 Author: Merri Lou Schaumann.

Born in Carlisle in 1810, this gifted artist trained in Philadelphia, traveled extensively and won awards for his paintings.

In 1872, James Miller McKim wrote a series of reminiscences for the Carlisle Herald newspaper about the places and people of Carlisle in an earlier day. He wrote that “David Smith, a boot and shoemaker, had two sons… one of whom early developed a taste for art and finally devoted himself to miniature painting as a profession. He was a contemporary, and for a while, a rival of Mr. Thomas Officer, though I believe he never reached the celebrity attained by that gifted young artist. Mr. Officer, by the way, was one of the last miniature painters of any eminence produced by this country, the daguerreotype and photographer having come in to sweep away the entire profession.”

Thomas Story Officer was born in Carlisle on August 15, 1810, to cabinetmaker John Officer and his second wife Margaret. He trained in Philadelphia with the well-known portrait painter Thomas Sully and began his career there in the 1830s. Officer left Philadelphia occasionally to paint portraits in Mobile, Alabama in 1837, in Richmond, Virginia in 1845, and in New York City from 1846-1849 where he became a member of the National Academy of Design.

In 1842, Officer intended to travel to Mexico and needed a passport. He asked Attorney Charles B. Penrose, formerly of Carlisle, to write a letter of recommendation for him. In his letter to Fletcher Webster, Esq., Penrose wrote, “This will be handed to you by Thomas S. Officer, Esq., a friend of mine, and a native artist of Pennsylvania, who is a gentleman of great talents and respectability. Intending to visit Mexico, he wishes to procure passports at the State Department…”  Officer was issued a passport in July 1842. He was described as 30 years old, 5’ 11” with a “full and round forehead, bluish-gray eyes, an ordinary nose, medium mouth, ordinary chin, sallow complexion with an oval face and brown hair.”

Officer went to Mexico and later to Australia. In 1854, he opened a studio in Sandridge, Australia, and while there he “entered several oil portraits in the 1854 Melbourne Exhibition preparatory to sending them to the 1855 Paris Exhibition