A gentleman, by Moses B. Russell, signed, circa 1845.

Set in the original gilded copper locket case with plaited hair in the aperture on the reverse. The inscription on the backing paper includes Russell's usual admonishment about removing the paper.

2 ½ inches high.

Moses B. Russell (1810-1884) an apparently untrained artist, worked for fifty years, first as a miniaturist, portrait painter and later as a daguerreotypist. A native of Woodstock New Hampshire, Russell married and spent most of his life in Boston, exhibiting at the Boston Athenaeum, the Harding Gallery, the Boston Art Association and the Boston Mechanic's Association. During the years 1854 - 1861, when Russell worked in New York and Philadelphia, he exhibited at the American Institute of the City of New York. Russell was married to miniaturist Clarissa Peters, who exhibited as Mrs. Moses B. Russell.