Officer, Thomas Story - portrait of Dr Amos Hull

This unsigned miniature portrait is very large for a miniature on ivory, being 170 mm x 130 mm. It has been attributed to Thomas Story Officer (1810-1859) who worked in New York, Philadelphia and a number of other cities before moving to Australia around 1850. He then returned to San Francisco where he worked until his death. 

The sitter is Dr Amos Gerald Hull (1810-1859), who was a well known pioneer and practioner in homeopathy and he also wrote a great deal on the subject. For more about him see Amos Gerald Hull and Amos Gerald Hull (1810-1859) - Pioneers of homeopathy by TL Bradford Oddly, both Officer and Hull were born in 1810 and died in 1859. There are numerous references to Amos Hull with respect to homeopathy.

The portrait may be signed on the rear, but has not been removed from the frame. The frame is an unusual size for an American portrait, but was perhaps imported from England, for use by Thomas Story Officer.

Although not shown here, the heavy metal frame and matt are identical in size and style to that used for a portrait by Officer in the collection of Linda and Raymond White, now located at the Cheekwood Museum near Nashville. That frame is illustrated on the rear cover of the 1996 exhibition catalogue of the White collection.

The heavy frame is also the same as this large, 194mm x 133mm, miniature portrait by Officer in the Metropolitan Museum, where it is titled; "Holy Eyes": Officer painted the composition for an exhibition at the National Academy of Design in 1848. The Metropolitan Museum owns the artist's preparatory drawing. Thus the Hull miniature was likely painted around that same date.

Another miniature in this Artists and Ancestors collection that has also been attributed to Officer can be seen at Officer, Thomas Story - portrait of two children 903