Anson Dickinson

Anson Dickinson
Anson Dickinson by Edward Malbone, July 1804
Born	(1779-04-19)19 April 1779 Milton, Connecticut, United States
Died	9 March 1852(1852-03-09) (aged 72) Milton, Connecticut, United States
Nationality	American
Occupation	Portrait painter
Known for	Miniatures

Anson Dickinson (19 April 1779 - 9 March 1852) was an American painter of miniature portraits who achieved fame during his lifetime, producing a very large number of works, but who is now largely forgotten.

Anson Dickinson was born in Milton, a district of Litchfield, Connecticut, in 1779, son of Oliver Dickinson Junior (1757-1847) and Anna Landon Dickinson (1760-1849). He was the oldest of ten children. His father was a master carpenter. For a while Dickinson was apprenticed to Isaac Thompson, a silversmith in Litchfield. He did enamel work, made frames and painted signs before becoming a miniature painter. He probably met and learned from Elkanah Tisdale in these early years. On 27 April 1802 Dickinson published an advertisement for miniature portrait painting in the Connecticut Journal, a New Haven newspaper. The first known painting signed by Dickinson is dated 1803.

In July 1804 Dickinson made a trip to New York City, where Edward Greene Malbone painted his portrait. He returned to Connecticut and began painting prominent local people as well as students from the Tapping Reeve Law School and the Litchfield Female Academy founded by Sarah Pierce. He began traveling in 1805, a habit that lasted most of his life. He met Washington Irving in Albany in 1810, and Irving encouraged him in his work. He showed his work in a number of exhibitions between 1811 and 1815. His work was shown at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, the National Academy of Design, the American Academy of the Fine Arts and the Boston Athenaeum. In 1816 he was among the first to be elected to the American Academy of the Fine Arts.

At several times during his career Dickinson had a studio in New York City. Thus on 16 February 1811 a notice appeared in the New York City Commercial Advertiser saying "Mr. Dickinson informs his friends that he has re-commenced Miniature Painting, in the City Hotel, adjoining the Assembly Room." Since this hotel was called "the grandest and most important public house in New York City", Dickinson was clearly doing well at this time. To promote business he frequently advertised in the newspapers, and would place his business card in the lockets that held his miniatures.