The Miniature Painter Revealed: Amalia Kussner and the Gilded Age

The Miniature Painter Revealed: Amalia Kussner’s Gilded Age Pursuit of Fame and Fortune

A Talk by Kathleen Langone — with connections to Newburyport miniaturist Laura Coombs Hills

Friday, September 12, 2025 • 6:30 p.m.Newburyport Art Association, Newburyport, MA

Join author and historian Kathleen Langone for a richly illustrated lecture on the life and work of Amalia Kussner, one of the most celebrated miniaturists of the Gilded Age—and discover her surprising connections to Newburyport’s own renowned portrait miniaturist, Laura Coombs Hills.

In the late 19th century, no female portrait artist matched Amalia Kussner’s prestige or clientele. At a time when photography was ascendant, Kussner’s hand-painted miniatures delivered warmth, elegance, and a soulful presence that cameras could not. Her sitters included Caroline Astor, Consuelo Vanderbilt, Mamie Fish, Minnie Paget, Edward VII, Czar Nicholas II and Alexandra, and Cecil Rhodes—rendered in luxurious detail and often in daringly modern, off-the-shoulder poses.

From the mid-1890s to the early 1910s, owning a Kussner miniature signaled status on par with fine jewelry or a Newport mansion. Commanding commissions comparable to leading male artists, Kussner stands among the “first wave” of prominent women artists—yet her rise also included lawsuits, scandals, and sudden turns, including a surprise marriage to Charles du Pont Coudert.

Drawing from her book The Miniature Painter Revealed, Langone presents 70 images, including color reproductions of Kussner’s rare surviving works, and explores how the careers of Kussner and Laura Coombs Hills intersected within the elite world of Gilded Age portraiture—offering a local lens for Newburyport audiences.