Examination in Normal Light

Three portrait miniature experts confirmed that the ivory, the frame, and the painting itself were genuinely antebellum with a date of execution between 1830 to 1850. They could tell the owners nothing more about the small painting that is now referred to as the Mathisen Miniature.

The owners contacted Fine Art Investigations who determined, through clothing and hair style, that the time frame could be narrowed down to 1840-1842. Light clothing fabric indicated that the season was summer. For the region, FAI initially chose the Ohio River Valley because many artists of the era, whether traveling east and west or north and south, passed through on the network of rivers. The selection included Kentucky, the home state of the Todd family. By comparing the miniature with the work of 42 artists, through connoisseurship, and Morellian analysis, FAI discovered Joseph Henry Bush to be the probable artist. Further research revealed that in August-September 1841, Abraham Lincoln, who was then a 32-year-old, debt-free circuit attorney, visited his friend Joshua Fry Speed at the Speed estate in Louisville. Bush was the portrait artist for the Speed family. The time was eight months after Abraham Lincoln broke his engagement to Mary Todd.