Siblings by Spornberg

This is a well-documented pair of profile portraits, one showing a young boy in a muslin dress with short sleeves and a frilled neckline, the other showing a baby in a dress and lace cap.

Drawn in pencil and watercolour, they are set against a brown background and are each signed on the reverse – ‘J. Spornberg fecit / inventor of the / Etruscan Profiles / No. 1 Union Passage / Bath / 1800’.

The silhouettes are set in the original papier-mâché frames with convex glass and star hangers. There is slight water staining to the base of one profile – this is of long standing as it is visible in images taken of them in 1971.

Finnish by birth, Jacob Spornberg (b.1768) settled in Bath in 1790. His wife Rebecca ran a millinery shop in Milsom Street. In 1840, following Rebecca’s death, Spornberg emigrated to the United States to join his son.