In the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York City] John Singleton Copley was another famous artist of this period. He was renowned for his large portraits in oil, which were characterized by a skilful treatment of silks and rich fabrics for both costumes and elaborate backgrounds, and yet he painted many miniatures. John Trumbull, known chiefly as a painter of stirring historical subjects of the Revolutionary era and for his portraits of Washington, also worked in miniatures, as did John Hesselius, in Annapolis. Gilbert Stuart, while a prolific painter of portraits, is not said by his biographers to have painted miniatures, although several have been attributed to him. The fact that many miniatures, even by the greater artists, were not signed or dated, has made it difficult to determine the origin of some of the most beautiful examples, or to place them definitely as the work of American painters. Moreover, miniatures brought back as souvenirs by those who were able to travel abroad in those days introduced the work of foreign artists, often unsigned, among American miniatures, thus making identification more difficult. [Illustration: JULIANA M. McWHORTER, BY BENJAMIN TROTT In the possession of the New York Historical Society] Edward G. Malbone, born in Newport, R.I., in 1777, was destined to become the most important miniature painter of his time in America. Malbone had the gift of realism; of simple, unaffected grace and a sureness of rendition that compelled attention. His portraits were likenesses of intimate and convincing truth. "The Hours," Malbone's most famous work, a fanciful subject depicting the past, present and future hour and painted in 1801, after a short period of study in England, is now the property of the Providence Athenæum. Many of his portrait miniatures are owned by individuals throughout the South, where he spent several years, and prematurely died in the height of his career, at the age of thirty. A group of his portraits is also included in the Metropolitan Museum collection. [Illustration: GILBERT STUART, BY SARAH GOODRIDGE In the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York City] [Illustration: GILBERT STUART, BY ANSON DICKERSON In the possession of the New York Historical Society]