{"meta":{"version":"2.1","_links":{"self":{"href":"https://api.vam.ac.uk/v2/object/O72544"},"collection_page":{"href":"https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O72544/"}},"images":{"_primary_thumbnail":"https://framemark.vam.ac.uk/collections/2006AP6293/full/!100,100/0/default.jpg","_iiif_image":"https://framemark.vam.ac.uk/collections/2006AP6293/","_alt_iiif_image":[],"imageResolution":"high","_images_meta":[{"assetRef":"2006AP6293","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2017JU2431","copyright":"©Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false}]},"see_also":{"_iiif_pres":"https://iiif.vam.ac.uk/collections/O72544/manifest.json","_alt_iiif_pres":[]}},"record":{"systemNumber":"O72544","accessionNumber":"P.85-1935","objectType":"Portrait miniature","titles":[{"title":"White Mice","type":"assigned by artist"}],"summaryDescription":"It was rare for a miniature painter to paint original subject pictures. Samuel Shelley had painted many subject pictures in miniature, such as <i>Macbeth and the Witches</i>, and exhibited them at the Royal Academy in London. But he found that the public showed little interest these works, and many remained unsold. Alfred Tidey's experience with this rare subject picture, <i>White Mice</i>, was much the same as that of Shelley 60 years earlier. The work is reminiscent of the work of the 17th-century Spanish painter Bartolomé Murillo, but it is none the less an original composition. Tidey exhibited it in London at the Royal Academy in 1845, but while it was apparently admired, it never found a buyer. Miniature painting was too strongly connected in the public mind with the sentimental role of providing likenesses of loved ones.","physicalDescription":"Portrait miniature entitled 'White Mice' depicting a young man seated on the floor before a column accompanied by two white mice at the side of a cage. \n\n","artistMakerPerson":[{"name":{"text":"Tidey, Alfred","id":"A7173"},"association":{"text":"artist","id":"AAT25103"},"note":""}],"artistMakerOrganisations":[],"artistMakerPeople":[],"materials":[],"techniques":[{"text":"painting","id":"x30598"}],"materialsAndTechniques":"Portrait miniature","categories":[{"text":"Paintings","id":"THES48917"},{"text":"Portraits","id":"THES48906"}],"styles":[],"collectionCode":{"text":"PDP","id":"THES48595"},"images":["2006AP6293","2017JU2431"],"imageResolution":"high","galleryLocations":[{"current":{"text":"LVLF","id":"THES49656"},"free":"","case":"RMC","shelf":"6","box":"1"}],"partTypes":[[{"text":"miniature (painting)","id":"AAT33936"}]],"contentWarnings":[{"apprise":"","note":""}],"placesOfOrigin":[{"place":{"text":"Great Britain","id":"x32019"},"association":{"text":"painted","id":"x30138"},"note":""}],"productionDates":[{"date":{"text":"ca. 1845","earliest":"1840-01-01","latest":"1849-12-31"},"association":{"text":"painted","id":"x30138"},"note":""}],"associatedObjects":[],"creditLine":"Given by Dr Stuart Tidey, son of the artist","dimensions":[{"dimension":"Height","value":"193","unit":"mm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"","note":""},{"dimension":"Width","value":"137","unit":"mm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"","note":""}],"dimensionsNote":"","marksAndInscriptions":[{"content":"\"Samuel Rogers preferred receiving his friends at Breakfast.  I called on him early one morning and found him with two gentlemen (strangers to me, to whom he was shewing [sic] my Picture, \"The White Mice\", one of them observed it is like a reduced Murillo, on which Rogers said it is better than Murillo there is more force in it.  Of course I took this for what it was worth, his warm approbation of the work, and which was very gratifying.  \r\nWhen alone with him afterwards he strongly advised me to continue to work in the same style, but I told him I could not do so, on which he said \"What is to hinder you\", but I had not the courage to tell him, that tho' many admired the work no had offered to Buy it, in fact I had discovered that apart from Portraits, paintings on ivory would not be remunerative, and at this very time the dawn of Photography was threatening to annihilate Miniature Painting as an Art.  \r\n\r\nAbout this time the sun of the Miniature Painter was setting in all its glory, for then the works of Ross and Thorburn, Carrick & others were at their best and the thickest of the crowd of visitors to the Royal Academy was usually found in the Miniature room.\r\n\r\nEfforts are being made to recover this \"Art of the past\", but the great perfection to which Photography has attained goes so far to satisfy the never ceasing and most cherished feelings of humanity, and which the Miniature painter alone could formerly supply (viz) likeness in little, that I fear it will be but a vain struggle, Alf Tidey. Nov 1885\".","inscriber":{"name":{"text":"","id":""},"association":{"text":"","id":""}},"date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"description":"","interpretation":"","language":"","medium":"","method":"","position":"","script":"","translation":"","transliteration":"","type":"","note":"Copy of the writing on a paper stuck on the back of the frame of Tidey's \"White Mice\"."}],"objectHistory":"","historicalContext":"","briefDescription":"Portrait miniature entitled 'White Mice' by Alfred Tidey.  Great Britain, ca. 1845.","bibliographicReferences":[],"production":"Exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1845","productionType":{"text":"","id":""},"contentDescription":"","contentPlaces":[],"associatedPlaces":[],"contentPerson":[],"associatedPerson":[],"contentOrganisations":[],"associatedOrganisations":[],"contentPeople":[],"associatedPeople":[],"contentEvents":[],"associatedEvents":[],"contentOthers":[{"text":"portrait","id":"AAT33936"}],"contentConcepts":[],"contentLiteraryRefs":[],"galleryLabels":[],"partNumbers":["P.85-1935"],"accessionNumberNum":"85","accessionNumberPrefix":"P","accessionYear":1935,"otherNumbers":[],"copyNumber":"","aspects":["WHOLE"],"assets":[],"recordModificationDate":"2025-12-19","recordCreationDate":"2003-01-06","availableToBook":false}}