It was 1784. A twice-widowed woman named Maria Fitzherbert, just came out of mourning and entered English society. Here, the then 27-year-old woman met a man who was six years younger — the Prince of Wales (the future George IV), who was immediately enthralled by her.
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Never mind that she was both a Catholic and a commoner, two big strikes against her ever being accepted by his father, King George III. The prince was defiantly infatuated and ardent in his pursuit of marriage, even threatening suicide if she would not have him. Fitzherbert, for her part, thought it was best to flee the country when her relentless admirer proposed.
Soon after Fitzherbert fled the country, she would receive a letter from the prince himself. Along with the letter that says “if you have not totally forgotten the whole countenance. I think the likeness will strike you,” Fitzherbert also received something else: it was a miniature painting of the prince’s right eye. Shortly after this event, Fitzherbert would then return to England and secretly marry the prince, and she would later give him a miniature painting of her eye.
Their marriage was not considered valid due to the lack of royal consent, but the lore around the eye paintings endured, inspiring a fashion for such tokens. While miniature portraits were already popular in eighteenth-century England, they were often private objects viewed solely by the wearer. Yet an eye portrait could be worn boldly on a bracelet, ring, stickpin, pendant, or brooch, with the identity of the subject a mystery.
Similar to exchanging locks of hair, the eye portraits helped keep a person close, even when separated by distance or the decorum of Georgian courtship, which limited public romantic gestures. They also channeled a desire to be seen. Art historian Marcia Pointon explores this context in The Art Bulletin, noting that the “word gaze in this period denotes a fixity of looking or staring that implies a degree of self-consciousness on the part of the looker and the looked at.” So the eye miniatures are not only standing in for an absent person like a miniature portrait would, they’re evoking that charged act of looking. Painted with incredible detail in watercolor on ivory, they also evoked a vigilant stare to remind the wearer to be faithful while their beloved was away.
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(Image Credit: The Met/ JSTOR Daily)
Source: neatorama