The riveting story of how one woman rose from simple beginnings to become one of the most sought-after miniaturists of the Gilded Age. Richly illustrated with over 70 photos, including color images of her rare surviving works.
No other female portrait artist had the notoriety or esteemed clientele that Amalia Kussner did. Although photography was on the rise during the late 1800s, miniatures had a feeling and soul to them that photos could not capture. Amalia’s portraits provided a grandeur that presented Gilded Age elites as American royalty. Her subjects included reigning social queen Mrs. Caroline Astor, Mrs. John Jacob Astor, Consuelo Vanderbilt, Mamie Fish, “dollar heiress” Minnie Paget, Edward VII of England, Czar Nicholas II and Alexandra of Russia, and diamond magnate Cecil Rhodes.
From the mid-1890s to 1910, having a Kussner miniature was just as important as owning fine jewelry or a mansion in Newport. Amalia’s style was also provocative for the late Victorian period. Her subjects were draped in off-the-shoulder satin or tulle, with their hair loosely pinned around their heads and tendrils framing their faces. She kept the women’s best features but gave them an almost mythical appearance, akin to the fairy queen Titania in A Midsummer Night’s Dream.
Amalia Kussner has been included, along with other nineteenth-century women artists, in the “first wave of feminism” in large part because she commanded very high commissions, comparable to male artists of the time. She was fascinating and sometimes mysterious—particularly regarding her sudden marriage to lawyer Charles du Pont Coudert. She achieved fame and fortune, but her story also revealed a few lawsuits, scandals, and lies.
Kathleen Langone is a freelance writer and historical researcher whose work has been published in regional New England publications such as Boston Magazine and various newspapers. She is also the host of People Hidden in History, a podcast that highlights fascinating people in the arts and politics who are unknown to the general public. She has been a speaker at museums, historical societies, libraries, the New York Adventure Club, and History Camp, and frequently presents on Amalia Kussner. She lives in Middleton, MA.
Kathleen Langone presents an enchanting account of a late nineteenth-century art form: portraits of Gilded Age beauties, painted on ivory and often gold-framed. In an era of limited options for creative women, Amalia Kussner was renowned for the delicate beauty of her images. Kussner miniatures have been highly prized and collected by various institutions. Langone has intensively researched these delightful works of art, as well as the talented and tenacious artist herself. The Miniature Painter Revealed presents a little-known but immensely charming facet of Gilded Age feminine culture. ~Carol Wallace, author of the New York Times bestseller To Marry an English Lord, an inspiration for Downton Abbey
Thoroughly engaging! Amalia Kussners rise to artistic stardom is a must-read for anyone interested in the achievements of women during the Gilded Age. ~Alyssa Maxwell, author of the Gilded Newport Mysteries
Lively and well-paced, Langones The Miniature Painter Revealed opens another portal into the Gilded Age—that of a bold, mysterious female artist and the aristocrats and elites who sat for her exquisite portraits. ~Esther Crain, founder of Ephemeral New York and author of The Gilded Age in New York, 1870–1910
Amalia Kussner’s perseverance opened the doors to royalty and society, but it was her talent that kept her there. The subjects she painted were a “Who’s Who” of the Gilded Age both in the United States and in Europe. Langone’s book restores Amalia to her rightful place in history. ~Richard Jay Hutto, Gilded Age historian and author of The Countess and the Nazis: An American Family’s Private War
"This is a topic I knew absolutely nothing about but I fell in love with miniature portraiture, Amalia Kussner, and Kathleen Langones storytelling—which draws us from the micro of one womans remarkable life to the macro of the Gilded Age and beyond." ~Lucy Jane Santos, author of Half Lives: The Unlikely History of Radium
