Limners

DEFINITION

May refer to any painter, but more often to itinerant American painters of the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, who made literal and na?ve portraits. They were largely self-taught. Also, may refer to a painter of miniatures in medieval illuminated manuscripts.(pr. LIM-nərz)Examples by some of the early American limners:"The Schuyler Limner" (American, active in NY, in the Albany-Schenectady area 1717-1725), Mr. Willson, 1720, oil. The "Schuyler Limner" could possibly be Nehemiah Partridge."The Beardsley Limner" (American, active 1785-1805), Mrs. Hezekiah Beardsley, c. 1785-1790, oil, Yale University Art Gallery, NJ. The Beardsley Limner was an itinerant artist who executed several naive portraits along the old Boston Post Road, in Connecticut and Massachusetts, from about 1785 to 1805. This name is derived from portraits this artist made of Elizabeth and Hezekiah Beardsley. The Beardsley Limner may actually be a Connecticut pastelist Sarah Perkins. Some stylistic similarities exist between the two, but there are sufficient differences to raise questions about this identification.