Portrait miniature
Encyclopedia
A portrait miniature is a miniature portrait
painting, usually executed in gouache
, watercolour
, or enamel.
Portrait miniatures began to flourish in 16th century Europe
and the art was practiced during the 17th century and 18th century. They were especially valuable in introducing people to each other over distances; a nobleman proposing the marriage of his daughter might send a courier with her portrait to visit potential suitors. Soldiers and sailors might carry miniatures of their loved ones while traveling, or a wife might keep one of her husband while he was away.
The first miniaturists used watercolour to paint on stretched vellum
. During the second half of the 17th century, vitreous enamel painted on copper became increasingly popular. In the 18th century, miniatures were painted with watercolour on ivory. As small in size as 40 mm × 30 mm, portrait miniatures were often used as personal mementos or as jewellry or snuff box
covers.
From the mid-19th century, the development of daguerreotype
s and photography
contributed to the decline in popularity of the miniatures.
specialized in miniature painting in the second half of the 18th century and was appointed Miniature Painter to the Danish Court in 1769. He also worked at several other European courts and won a considerable international reputation. He was succeeded by Christian Horneman
as Denmark's premier proponent of the special trade of miniature portraits. Among his most known works are a portrait of Ludwig van Beethoven
from 1802 of which Beethoven was particularly fond—possibly because it presents him to a more handsome appearance than most other portraits.
The portrait miniature developed from the illuminated manuscript
, which had been superseded for the purposes of book illustration by techniques such as woodprints and calc printing. The earliest portrait miniaturists were famous manuscript painters like Jean Fouquet
(self-portrait of 1450), and Simon Bening
, whose daughter Levina Teerlinc
mostly painted portrait miniatures, and moved to England, where her predecessor as court artist, Hans Holbein the Younger
painted some miniatures. Lucas Horenbout
was another Netherlandish miniature painter at the court of Henry VIII
. France also had a strong tradition of miniatures, centred on the court.
The first famous native English portrait miniaturist is Nicholas Hilliard
(c. 1537–1619), whose work was conservative in style but very sensitive to the character of the sitter; his best works are beautifully executed. The colours are opaque, and gold is used to heighten the effect, while the paintings are on card. They are often signed, and have frequently also a Latin motto upon them. Hilliard worked for a while in France
, and he is probably identical with the painter alluded to in 1577 as Nicholas Belliart. Hilliard was succeeded by his son Lawrence Hilliard
(died 1640); his technique was similar to that of his father, but bolder, and his miniatures richer in colour.
Isaac Oliver
and his son Peter Oliver
(painter) succeeded Hilliard. Isaac (c. 1560–1617) was the pupil of Hilliard. Peter (1594–1647) was the pupil of Isaac. The two men were the earliest to give roundness and form to the faces they painted. They signed their best works in monogram, and painted not only very small miniatures, but larger ones measuring as much as 10 in × 9 in (250 mm × 230 mm). They copied for Charles I of England
on a small scale many of his famous pictures by the old masters.
Other miniaturists at about the same date included Balthazar Gerbier
, George Jamesone, Penelope Cleyn and her brothers. John Hoskins (died 1664) was followed by a son of the same name, who was known to have been living in 1700, since a miniature signed by him and bearing that date is in the Pierpont Morgan collection, representing James FitzJames, 1st Duke of Berwick
.
Samuel Cooper
(1609–1672) was a nephew and student of the elder Hoskins, and is considered the greatest English portrait miniaturist. He spent much of his time in Paris
and Holland, and very little is known of his career. His work has a superb breadth and dignity, and has been well called life-size work in little. His portraits of the men of the Puritan epoch are remarkable for their truth to life and strength of handling. He painted upon card, chicken skin and vellum, and on two occasions upon thin pieces of mutton bone. The use of ivory was not introduced until long after his time. His work is frequently signed with his initials, generally in gold, and very often with the addition of the date.
Other miniaturists of this period include Alexander Cooper
(died 1660), who painted a series of portraits of the children of the king and queen of Bohemia; David des Granges (1611–1675); Richard Gibson (1615–1690); Susannah-Penelope Rosse, his daughter, who imitated the work of Samuel Cooper, and Charles Beale and Mary Beale
. They are followed by such artists as Lawrence Crosse (died 1724), Gervase Spencer
(died 1763), Bernard Lens III
, Nathaniel Hone and Jeremiah Meyer
, the latter two notable in connection with the foundation of the Royal Academy
. The workers in black lead (plumbago, as it was called at that time) must not be overlooked, especially David Loggan
, William Faithorne
, White, Thomas Forster
and John Faber Senior
. They drew with exquisite detail and great effect on paper or vellum.
On 28 April 1733, there was a terrible destruction of portrait miniatures in a fire at White's Chocolate and Coffe House
. Sir Andrew Fountaine
rented two rooms at White's to temporarily hold his huge collection of portraits done by Hilliard, the Olivers, Samuel Cooper, and others. The entire house burned down; the number of paintings destroyed was so large that the ashes were carefully sifted to recover the gold from the incinerated mountings of the miniatures.
The 18th century produced a great number of miniature painters, of whom Richard Cosway
(1742–1821) is the most famous. His works are of great beauty, and executed with a dash and brilliance which no other artist equalled. His best work was done about 1799. His portraits are generally on ivory, although occasionally he worked on paper or vellum, and he produced a great many full-length pencil drawings on paper, in which he slightly tinted the faces and hands, and these he called "stayned drawings". Cosway's finest miniatures are signed on the back; there is but one genuine signed on the face; very few bear even his initials on the front.
George Engleheart
(1750–1829) painted 4,900 miniatures, and his work is stronger and more impressive than that of Cosway; it is often signed E or G.E. Andrew Plimer
(1763–1837) was a pupil of Cosway, and both he and his brother Nathaniel Plimer
produced some lovely portraits. The brightness of the eyes, wiriness of the hair, exuberance of colour, combined with forced chiaroscuro and often very inaccurate drawing, are characteristics of Andrew Plimer's work. John Smart
(c1740–1811) was in some respects the greatest of the 18th century miniaturists. His work excelled in refinement, power and delicacy; its silky texture and elaborate finish, and the artists love for a brown background, distinguish it. Other notable painters were Richard Crosse
(1742–1810), Ozias Humphry (1742–1810), Samuel Shelley
(c1750–1808), whose best pictures are groups of two or more persons, William Wood
, a Suffolk artist (1768–1808), Henry Edridge
(1769–1821), John Bogle
, and Edward Dayes
.
In the 19th century John Cox Dillman Engleheart
(1784–1862), nephew of George; Andrew Robertson (1777–1845), George Beaumont
, William Behnes
, Thomas Frank Heaphy and Anne Mee must be mentioned; William Corden the Elder
(1795–1867) is also popular with collectors. Sir Thomas Lawrence
painted a few miniatures, and Henry Raeburn
some in his early days; but the art maybe said to have died out with Sir William Ross
, although some works by Sir Edwin Henry Landseer
in this form are in existence, some small paintings of flowers by George Lance
, and one portrait by Dante Gabriel Rossetti
. Towards the end of the 19th century came a revival of miniature painting, but without producing any masters of the same calibre. Alyn Williams amongst Englishmen, Johann Waldemar von Rehling-Quistgaard, the talented Danish miniature painter, and Bess Norris, an Australian artist, deserve mention.
Although the popularity of small portraiture began to decline in the 20th century, some artists continued to accept commissions, among them Eda Nemoede Casterton
, who was selected to show her work in the prestigious Paris Salon. Nemoede Casterton used thin sheets of ivory rather than canvas for her paintings, a common practice among miniature portraitists.
(died c. 1540), his son François Clouet
, Jean Fouquet
, Jean Perreal
and others; but of their work in portraiture we have little trace at the present day, although there are many portraits and a vast number of drawings attributed to them with more or less reason. The seven portraits in the manuscript of the Gallic War Bibliothque Nationale are assigned to the eider Clouet; and to them may be added a fine work, in the Pierpont Morgan collection, representing the Marschal de Brissac. Following these men we find Renard de Saint-André (1613–1677), and Jean Cotelle
; the fine draughtsmen Etienne Picart; and then, later on, we know of miniatures by Nicolas de Largillière
, François Boucher
, Jean-Marc Nattier
, and Jean-Germain Drouais; but the greatest names are those of Peter Adolph Hall of Sweden, François Dumont
of France, and Friedrich-Heinrich Füger of Austria. The tiny pictures painted by the van Blarenberghe family are by many persons grouped as miniatures, and some of the later French artists, as Pierre-Paul Prud'hon and Constance Meyer, executed miniature portraits, while others whose names might be mentioned were Joseph Werner
(1637–1710), Rosalba Carriera
(1675–1757), Pasquier
, Carlo Marsigli, Garriot, Sicardi and Festa
.
The most popular artists in France, however, were Jean-Baptiste Jacques Augustin
[1759–1832) and Jean-Baptiste Isabey
[1767–1855). Their portraits of Napoleon
and his court are exceedingly fine, and perhaps no other Frenchman painted miniatures so well as did Augustin.
(died 1761), the first American woman to work in the form. Miniaturist Amalia Küssner Coudert
(1863–1932), from Terre Haute, Indiana
, was known for her portraits of New York socialites and European royalty in the last decade of the 19th century. Recipients of her watercolor on ivory portraits included Caroline Astor, King Edward VII
, Czar Nicholas II of Russia and Cecil Rhodes.
Miniatures are painted in oil, watercolour and enamel, but chiefly in watercolour. Many Dutch and German miniatures were painted in oil, and as a rule these are on copper; and there are portraits in the same medium, and often on the same material, attributed to many of the great Italian artists, notably those of the Bologna school. Samuel Cooper is said to have executed a few paintings in oil on copper.
From about 1650 onwards many fine miniatures were executed in vitreous enamel. Jean Petitot
1607–1691 was the greatest worker in this material, and painted his finest portraits in Paris for Louis XIV of France
. His son succeeded him in the same profession. Other artists in enamel were Christian Friedrich Zincke
died 1767, Heinrich Hurter [1734–1799), David Liot, Paul Prieur, and Johann Melchior Dinglinger
. Many of these artists were either Frenchmen or Swiss, but most of them visited England and worked there for a while. The greatest English enamel portrait painter was Henry Bone
[1755–1839). A great collection of his small enamel reproductions of celebrated paintings is in Buckingham Palace
.
During the 18th century, watercolour on ivory became the standard medium. The use of ivory was first adopted in around 1700, during the latter part of the reign of William III
; miniatures prior to that time having been painted on vellum, chicken-skin or cardboard, a few on the backs of playing cards, and many more on very thin vellum closely mounted on to playing cards.
Portrait
thumb|250px|right|Portrait of [[Thomas Jefferson]] by [[Rembrandt Peale]], 1805. [[New-York Historical Society]].A portrait is a painting, photograph, sculpture, or other artistic representation of a person, in which the face and its expression is predominant. The intent is to display the likeness,...
painting, usually executed in gouache
Gouache
Gouache[p], also spelled guache, the name of which derives from the Italian guazzo, water paint, splash or bodycolor is a type of paint consisting of pigment suspended in water. A binding agent, usually gum arabic, is also present, just as in watercolor...
, watercolour
Watercolor painting
Watercolor or watercolour , also aquarelle from French, is a painting method. A watercolor is the medium or the resulting artwork in which the paints are made of pigments suspended in a water-soluble vehicle...
, or enamel.
Portrait miniatures began to flourish in 16th century Europe
Europe
Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...
and the art was practiced during the 17th century and 18th century. They were especially valuable in introducing people to each other over distances; a nobleman proposing the marriage of his daughter might send a courier with her portrait to visit potential suitors. Soldiers and sailors might carry miniatures of their loved ones while traveling, or a wife might keep one of her husband while he was away.
The first miniaturists used watercolour to paint on stretched vellum
Vellum
Vellum is mammal skin prepared for writing or printing on, to produce single pages, scrolls, codices or books. It is generally smooth and durable, although there are great variations depending on preparation, the quality of the skin and the type of animal used...
. During the second half of the 17th century, vitreous enamel painted on copper became increasingly popular. In the 18th century, miniatures were painted with watercolour on ivory. As small in size as 40 mm × 30 mm, portrait miniatures were often used as personal mementos or as jewellry or snuff box
Decorative boxes
Though the purpose of a box may be purely functional, boxes can also be very decorative and artistic. Many boxes are used for promotional packaging, both commercially and privately...
covers.
From the mid-19th century, the development of daguerreotype
Daguerreotype
The daguerreotype was the first commercially successful photographic process. The image is a direct positive made in the camera on a silvered copper plate....
s and photography
Photography
Photography is the art, science and practice of creating durable images by recording light or other electromagnetic radiation, either electronically by means of an image sensor or chemically by means of a light-sensitive material such as photographic film...
contributed to the decline in popularity of the miniatures.
Denmark
In Denmark, Cornelius HøyerCornelius Høyer
Cornelius Høyer was a Danish painter, mainly known for his work in miniatures. Within his special trade, he was among the virtuosos of his day and won an international reputation.-Biography:Høyer was born at Kronborg Rifle Factory...
specialized in miniature painting in the second half of the 18th century and was appointed Miniature Painter to the Danish Court in 1769. He also worked at several other European courts and won a considerable international reputation. He was succeeded by Christian Horneman
Christian Horneman
Christian Horneman was a Danish miniature and pastels painter, mainly known for portraits. He was the father of the composer Emil Horneman and grandfather of C. F. E. Horneman, also a composer.-Biography:...
as Denmark's premier proponent of the special trade of miniature portraits. Among his most known works are a portrait of Ludwig van Beethoven
Ludwig van Beethoven
Ludwig van Beethoven was a German composer and pianist. A crucial figure in the transition between the Classical and Romantic eras in Western art music, he remains one of the most famous and influential composers of all time.Born in Bonn, then the capital of the Electorate of Cologne and part of...
from 1802 of which Beethoven was particularly fond—possibly because it presents him to a more handsome appearance than most other portraits.
England
Illuminated manuscript
An illuminated manuscript is a manuscript in which the text is supplemented by the addition of decoration, such as decorated initials, borders and miniature illustrations...
, which had been superseded for the purposes of book illustration by techniques such as woodprints and calc printing. The earliest portrait miniaturists were famous manuscript painters like Jean Fouquet
Jean Fouquet
Jean Fouquet was a preeminent French painter of the 15th century, a master of both panel painting and manuscript illumination, and the apparent inventor of the portrait miniature. He was the first French artist to travel to Italy and experience at first hand the Italian Early...
(self-portrait of 1450), and Simon Bening
Simon Bening
Simon Bening was a 16th century miniature painter of the Ghent-Bruges school, the last major artist of the Netherlandish tradition....
, whose daughter Levina Teerlinc
Levina Teerlinc
Levina Teerlinc was a Flemish miniaturist who served as a painter to the English court of Edward VI, Mary I and Elizabeth I....
mostly painted portrait miniatures, and moved to England, where her predecessor as court artist, Hans Holbein the Younger
Hans Holbein the Younger
Hans Holbein the Younger was a German artist and printmaker who worked in a Northern Renaissance style. He is best known as one of the greatest portraitists of the 16th century. He also produced religious art, satire and Reformation propaganda, and made a significant contribution to the history...
painted some miniatures. Lucas Horenbout
Lucas Horenbout
Lucas Horenbout, often called Hornebolte in England, was a Flemish artist who moved to England in the mid-1520s and worked there as "King's Painter" and court miniaturist to King Henry VIII from 1525 until his death...
was another Netherlandish miniature painter at the court of Henry VIII
Henry VIII of England
Henry VIII was King of England from 21 April 1509 until his death. He was Lord, and later King, of Ireland, as well as continuing the nominal claim by the English monarchs to the Kingdom of France...
. France also had a strong tradition of miniatures, centred on the court.
The first famous native English portrait miniaturist is Nicholas Hilliard
Nicholas Hilliard
Nicholas Hilliard was an English goldsmith and limner best known for his portrait miniatures of members of the courts of Elizabeth I and James I of England. He mostly painted small oval miniatures, but also some larger cabinet miniatures, up to about ten inches tall, and at least two famous...
(c. 1537–1619), whose work was conservative in style but very sensitive to the character of the sitter; his best works are beautifully executed. The colours are opaque, and gold is used to heighten the effect, while the paintings are on card. They are often signed, and have frequently also a Latin motto upon them. Hilliard worked for a while in France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
, and he is probably identical with the painter alluded to in 1577 as Nicholas Belliart. Hilliard was succeeded by his son Lawrence Hilliard
Lawrence Hilliard
Lawrence Hilliard was an English miniature painter.Hilliard, a son of Nicholas Hilliard and his wife Alice Brandon – was christened on 5 March 1582. He evidently derived his Christian name from that of his grandmother, Laurence Wall, the daughter of John Wall, a London goldsmith...
(died 1640); his technique was similar to that of his father, but bolder, and his miniatures richer in colour.
Isaac Oliver
Isaac Oliver
Isaac Oliver was a French-born English portrait miniature painter.-Life and work:Born in Rouen, he moved to London in 1568 with his Huguenot parents Peter and Epiphany Oliver to escape the Wars of Religion in France...
and his son Peter Oliver
Peter Oliver
Peter Oliver was an English miniaturist.Born in Isleworth, Middlesex, he was the eldest son of Isaac Oliver, probably by his first wife; and to him Isaac Oliver left his finished and unfinished drawings, with the hope that he would live to exercise the art of his father...
(painter) succeeded Hilliard. Isaac (c. 1560–1617) was the pupil of Hilliard. Peter (1594–1647) was the pupil of Isaac. The two men were the earliest to give roundness and form to the faces they painted. They signed their best works in monogram, and painted not only very small miniatures, but larger ones measuring as much as 10 in × 9 in (250 mm × 230 mm). They copied for Charles I of England
Charles I of England
Charles I was King of England, King of Scotland, and King of Ireland from 27 March 1625 until his execution in 1649. Charles engaged in a struggle for power with the Parliament of England, attempting to obtain royal revenue whilst Parliament sought to curb his Royal prerogative which Charles...
on a small scale many of his famous pictures by the old masters.
Other miniaturists at about the same date included Balthazar Gerbier
Balthazar Gerbier
Sir Balthazar Gerbier , was an Anglo-Dutch courtier, diplomat, art advisor, miniaturist and architectural designer, in his own words fluent in "several languages" with "a good hand in writing, skill in sciences as mathematics, architecture, drawing, painting, contriving of scenes, masques, shows...
, George Jamesone, Penelope Cleyn and her brothers. John Hoskins (died 1664) was followed by a son of the same name, who was known to have been living in 1700, since a miniature signed by him and bearing that date is in the Pierpont Morgan collection, representing James FitzJames, 1st Duke of Berwick
James FitzJames, 1st Duke of Berwick
James FitzJames, 1st Duke of Berwick, 1st Duke of Fitz-James, 1st Duke of Liria and Jérica was an Anglo-French military leader, illegitimate son of King James II of England by Arabella Churchill, sister of the 1st Duke of Marlborough...
.
Samuel Cooper
Samuel Cooper
Samuel Cooper was an English miniature painter, and younger brother of Alexander Cooper.He is believed to have been born in London, and was a nephew of John Hoskins, the miniature painter, by whom he was educated. He lived in Henrietta Street, Covent Garden, and frequented the Covent Garden...
(1609–1672) was a nephew and student of the elder Hoskins, and is considered the greatest English portrait miniaturist. He spent much of his time in Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
and Holland, and very little is known of his career. His work has a superb breadth and dignity, and has been well called life-size work in little. His portraits of the men of the Puritan epoch are remarkable for their truth to life and strength of handling. He painted upon card, chicken skin and vellum, and on two occasions upon thin pieces of mutton bone. The use of ivory was not introduced until long after his time. His work is frequently signed with his initials, generally in gold, and very often with the addition of the date.
Alexander Cooper
Alexander Cooper was an English Baroque miniature painter.-Biography:He was the elder brother of the painter Samuel Cooper. He learned painting from Peter Oliver and was active in London from 1633 - 1642, whereupon he traveled to The Hague...
(died 1660), who painted a series of portraits of the children of the king and queen of Bohemia; David des Granges (1611–1675); Richard Gibson (1615–1690); Susannah-Penelope Rosse, his daughter, who imitated the work of Samuel Cooper, and Charles Beale and Mary Beale
Mary Beale
Mary Beale was an English portrait painter. She became one of the most important portrait painters of 17th century England, and has been described as the first professional female English painter.-Life and work:...
. They are followed by such artists as Lawrence Crosse (died 1724), Gervase Spencer
Gervase Spencer
Gervase Spencer , was an English miniaturist. Originally a footman to a 'Dr W', Spencer taught himself the art of painting in watercolour on ivory, and was encouraged by his employer. Since enamels were in vogue at the time, he also mastered the complexities of this process. Spencer's prodigious...
(died 1763), Bernard Lens III
Bernard Lens III
Bernard Lens III was an English artist known primarily for his portrait miniatures. Lens was the miniature painter at the courts of kings George I and George II, instructor in miniature painting to prince William and princesses Mary and Louise and consultant in fine arts to upper-class...
, Nathaniel Hone and Jeremiah Meyer
Jeremiah Meyer
Jeremiah Meyer was an 18th-century English miniature painter. Among Meyer's creations as Painter in Miniatures and Enamels to King George III, was the king's portrait used for coinage.Meyer was also one of the founder members of the Royal Academy....
, the latter two notable in connection with the foundation of the Royal Academy
Royal Academy
The Royal Academy of Arts is an art institution based in Burlington House on Piccadilly, London. The Royal Academy of Arts has a unique position in being an independent, privately funded institution led by eminent artists and architects whose purpose is to promote the creation, enjoyment and...
. The workers in black lead (plumbago, as it was called at that time) must not be overlooked, especially David Loggan
David Loggan
David Loggan was an English baroque engraver, draughtsman and painter.-Life:He was baptized 27 August 1634 in Danzig, then a semi-autonomous city within Prussian Poland and a member of the Hanseatic League...
, William Faithorne
William Faithorne
William Faithorne , often "the Elder", , English painter and engraver, was born in London and was apprenticed to William Peake....
, White, Thomas Forster
Thomas Forster
Thomas Forster was a Northumbrian politician and landowner, who served as general of the Jacobite army in the 1715 Uprising.-Life:...
and John Faber Senior
John Faber Senior
John Faber Senior was a Dutch portrait engraver active in London, where he set up a shop for producing and marketing his own work. His son John Faber Junior was also active in this field.-Life:...
. They drew with exquisite detail and great effect on paper or vellum.
White's
White's is a London gentlemen's club, established at 4 Chesterfield Street in 1693 by Italian immigrant Francesco Bianco . Originally it was established to sell hot chocolate, a rare and expensive commodity at the time...
. Sir Andrew Fountaine
Andrew Fountaine (architect)
Sir Andrew Fountaine was an English antiquarian, art collector and amateur architect.-Life:...
rented two rooms at White's to temporarily hold his huge collection of portraits done by Hilliard, the Olivers, Samuel Cooper, and others. The entire house burned down; the number of paintings destroyed was so large that the ashes were carefully sifted to recover the gold from the incinerated mountings of the miniatures.
The 18th century produced a great number of miniature painters, of whom Richard Cosway
Richard Cosway
Richard Cosway was a leading English portrait painter—more accurately a miniaturist—of the Regency era. He was a contemporary of John Smart, George Engleheart, William Wood, and Richard Crosse...
(1742–1821) is the most famous. His works are of great beauty, and executed with a dash and brilliance which no other artist equalled. His best work was done about 1799. His portraits are generally on ivory, although occasionally he worked on paper or vellum, and he produced a great many full-length pencil drawings on paper, in which he slightly tinted the faces and hands, and these he called "stayned drawings". Cosway's finest miniatures are signed on the back; there is but one genuine signed on the face; very few bear even his initials on the front.
George Engleheart
George Engleheart
George Engleheart was one of the greatest English painters of portrait miniatures, and a contemporary of Richard Cosway, John Smart, William Wood, and Richard Crosse.-Family and home:...
(1750–1829) painted 4,900 miniatures, and his work is stronger and more impressive than that of Cosway; it is often signed E or G.E. Andrew Plimer
Andrew Plimer
Andrew Plimer was a British artist, born in Wellington, Shropshire in 1763 and died in Brighton in 1837.Plimer specialised in portrait miniatures. His work was exhibited at the Royal Academy from 1768 to 1810 and in 1819. His most famous painting is of the three daughters of Sir John Rushout...
(1763–1837) was a pupil of Cosway, and both he and his brother Nathaniel Plimer
Nathaniel Plimer
Nathaniel Plimer was an English miniature portrait painter.Plimer was born to a clockmaker in Wellington, Shropshire. He was apprenticed to Henry Bone the enameler, before joining his brother, Andrew, in studying drawing with Richard Cosway. He exhibited at the Royal Academy from 1787 until 1815. ...
produced some lovely portraits. The brightness of the eyes, wiriness of the hair, exuberance of colour, combined with forced chiaroscuro and often very inaccurate drawing, are characteristics of Andrew Plimer's work. John Smart
John Smart
John Smart , was an English painters of portrait miniatures. He was a contemporary of Richard Cosway, George Engleheart, William Wood and Richard Crosse.-Biography:He was born in Norfolk, but not much is known of his early life...
(c1740–1811) was in some respects the greatest of the 18th century miniaturists. His work excelled in refinement, power and delicacy; its silky texture and elaborate finish, and the artists love for a brown background, distinguish it. Other notable painters were Richard Crosse
Richard Crosse
Richard Crosse was a leading English painter of portrait miniatures. He was a contemporary of John Smart, George Engleheart, Richard Cosway and William Wood.-Family and home:...
(1742–1810), Ozias Humphry (1742–1810), Samuel Shelley
Samuel Shelley
Samuel Shelley was an English miniaturist and watercolour painter.Largely self-educated, Samuel Shelley was a leading miniaturist, i.e., painter of portrait miniatures, of his time, ranking with Cosway, Smart, and Crosse. In addition to his portraits, he also painted in water-colours fancy figures...
(c1750–1808), whose best pictures are groups of two or more persons, William Wood
William Wood
-People:* William Wood, 1st Baron Hatherley , British statesman* William Wood , Canadian track and field athlete* William Wood...
, a Suffolk artist (1768–1808), Henry Edridge
Henry Edridge
Henry Edridge ARA , was the son of a tradesman and apprenticed at the age of fifteen to W. Pether, a mezzotinto engraver and landscape painter, and became proficient as a painter of miniatures, portraits and landscapes....
(1769–1821), John Bogle
John Bogle (artist)
John Bogle exhibited miniature portraits in London from 1769 to 1792. In early life he lived in Glasgow and Edinburgh; afterwards he came to London, where it is said he died in poverty.-References:...
, and Edward Dayes
Edward Dayes
Edward Dayes was an English watercolour painter and engraver in mezzotint.-Life:He studied under William Pether, and began to exhibit at the Royal Academy in 1786, sending views of Waltham and Canterbury; in the three following years he exhibited miniatures as well as landscapes...
.
In the 19th century John Cox Dillman Engleheart
John Cox Dillman Engleheart
John Cox Dillman Engleheart was a miniature painter, the nephew of the miniature painter George Engleheart.He entered his uncle's studio when he was but fourteen years of age. He first exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1801, and sent in altogether 157 works...
(1784–1862), nephew of George; Andrew Robertson (1777–1845), George Beaumont
Sir George Beaumont, 7th Baronet
Sir George Howland Beaumont, 7th Baronet was a British art patron and amateur painter. He played a crucial part in the creation of London's National Gallery by making the first bequest of paintings to that institution....
, William Behnes
William Behnes
William Behnes was an English sculptor of the early 19th century.Born in London, Behnes was the son of a Hanoverian pianoforte-maker and his English wife. His early life was spent in Dublin where he studied art at the Dublin Academy....
, Thomas Frank Heaphy and Anne Mee must be mentioned; William Corden the Elder
William Corden the Elder
William Corden the Elder was an English portrait painter and miniaturist known for his commissions from the Royal Family in the mid nineteenth century....
(1795–1867) is also popular with collectors. Sir Thomas Lawrence
Thomas Lawrence (painter)
Sir Thomas Lawrence RA FRS was a leading English portrait painter and president of the Royal Academy.Lawrence was a child prodigy. He was born in Bristol and began drawing in Devizes, where his father was an innkeeper. At the age of ten, having moved to Bath, he was supporting his family with his...
painted a few miniatures, and Henry Raeburn
Henry Raeburn
Sir Henry Raeburn was a Scottish portrait painter, the first significant Scottish portraitist since the Act of Union 1707 to remain based in Scotland.-Biography:...
some in his early days; but the art maybe said to have died out with Sir William Ross
William Ross
-Politicians:*William Ross, Baron Ross of Marnock , Secretary of State for Scotland in the 1960s*William Ross , merchant, ship builder and politician in Nova Scotia, Canada...
, although some works by Sir Edwin Henry Landseer
Edwin Henry Landseer
Sir Edwin Henry Landseer, RA was an English painter, well known for his paintings of animals—particularly horses, dogs and stags...
in this form are in existence, some small paintings of flowers by George Lance
George Lance
George Lance was an English painter of still life and portrait miniatures.-Life and work:Lance was born at the old manor-house in Little Easton in Essex...
, and one portrait by Dante Gabriel Rossetti
Dante Gabriel Rossetti
Dante Gabriel Rossetti was an English poet, illustrator, painter and translator. He founded the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood in 1848 with William Holman Hunt and John Everett Millais, and was later to be the main inspiration for a second generation of artists and writers influenced by the movement,...
. Towards the end of the 19th century came a revival of miniature painting, but without producing any masters of the same calibre. Alyn Williams amongst Englishmen, Johann Waldemar von Rehling-Quistgaard, the talented Danish miniature painter, and Bess Norris, an Australian artist, deserve mention.
Although the popularity of small portraiture began to decline in the 20th century, some artists continued to accept commissions, among them Eda Nemoede Casterton
Eda Nemoede Casterton
Eda Nemoede Casterton was an American painter known specifically for her portrait miniatures in watercolor, pastels and oil. She exhibited works at the Paris Salon and the San Francisco Panama-Pacific Exhibition of 1915, among others. Her works are held by the Smithsonian Institution, The Brooklyn...
, who was selected to show her work in the prestigious Paris Salon. Nemoede Casterton used thin sheets of ivory rather than canvas for her paintings, a common practice among miniature portraitists.
France
The earliest French miniature painters were Jean ClouetJean Clouet
Jean Clouet was a miniaturist and painter who worked in France during the Renaissance. He was the father of François Clouet.-Biography:Clouet was allegedly born in Brussels....
(died c. 1540), his son François Clouet
François Clouet
François Clouet , son of Jean Clouet, was a French Renaissance miniaturist and painter, particularly known for his detailed portraits of the French ruling family.-Historical references:Clouet was born in Tours....
, Jean Fouquet
Jean Fouquet
Jean Fouquet was a preeminent French painter of the 15th century, a master of both panel painting and manuscript illumination, and the apparent inventor of the portrait miniature. He was the first French artist to travel to Italy and experience at first hand the Italian Early...
, Jean Perreal
Jean Perréal
Jean Perréal -- sometimes called Peréal, Johannes Parisienus or Jean De Paris -- was a successful portraitist for French Royalty in the first half of the 16th Century, as well as an architect, sculptor and limner of illuminated manuscripts...
and others; but of their work in portraiture we have little trace at the present day, although there are many portraits and a vast number of drawings attributed to them with more or less reason. The seven portraits in the manuscript of the Gallic War Bibliothque Nationale are assigned to the eider Clouet; and to them may be added a fine work, in the Pierpont Morgan collection, representing the Marschal de Brissac. Following these men we find Renard de Saint-André (1613–1677), and Jean Cotelle
Jean Cotelle
Jean Cotelle, 'the younger', was a painter and engraver, born in Paris in 1645. He received his early instruction from his father, Jean Cotelle, and eventually visited Italy. On his return he devoted himself to his profession, producing historical paintings, miniatures, and occasionally etchings...
; the fine draughtsmen Etienne Picart; and then, later on, we know of miniatures by Nicolas de Largillière
Nicolas de Largillière
Nicolas de Largillière was a painter born in Paris, France.-Early life:Largillière's father, a merchant, took him to Antwerp at the age of three. As a boy, he spent nearly two years in London. Sometime after his return to Antwerp, a failed attempt at business led him to the studio of Goubeau...
, François Boucher
François Boucher
François Boucher was a French painter, a proponent of Rococo taste, known for his idyllic and voluptuous paintings on classical themes, decorative allegories representing the arts or pastoral occupations, intended as a sort of two-dimensional furniture...
, Jean-Marc Nattier
Jean-Marc Nattier
Jean-Marc Nattier , French painter, was born in Paris, the second son of Marc Nattier , a portrait painter, and of Marie Courtois , a miniaturist...
, and Jean-Germain Drouais; but the greatest names are those of Peter Adolph Hall of Sweden, François Dumont
François Dumont
François Dumont was a French painter of portrait miniaturesDumont was born at Lunville , and was left an orphan when quite young, with five brothers and sisters to support. He was for a while a student under Jean Girardet, and then, on. the advice of a Lunville Academician, Madame Coster, set up a...
of France, and Friedrich-Heinrich Füger of Austria. The tiny pictures painted by the van Blarenberghe family are by many persons grouped as miniatures, and some of the later French artists, as Pierre-Paul Prud'hon and Constance Meyer, executed miniature portraits, while others whose names might be mentioned were Joseph Werner
Joseph Werner
Joseph Werner , known as the Younger to distinguish him from his painter father of the same name, was a Swiss painter, known for miniatures.-References:*This article was initially translated from the German Wikipedia....
(1637–1710), Rosalba Carriera
Rosalba Carriera
Rosalba Carriera was a Venetian Rococo painter. In her younger years, she specialized in portrait miniatures...
(1675–1757), Pasquier
Pasquier
Pasquier is a French surname derived from Latin pascuarium meaning "pasture". Pasquier shares the same root of given name and surname Pascal, from Latin Pascha, in turn from the Hebrew pesach that means literally "pass over"...
, Carlo Marsigli, Garriot, Sicardi and Festa
Festa
Festa may refer to any of the following:*The Italian word for a Christian Saint's feast day.*Festa della Repubblica, the Italian national day*Costanzo Festa, Italian Renaissance composer*Gianluca Festa, Italian football player...
.
The most popular artists in France, however, were Jean-Baptiste Jacques Augustin
Jean-Baptiste Jacques Augustin
Jean-Baptiste Jacques Augustin was a French miniature painter.- Biography :Augustin was born in Saint-Dié-des-Vosges and died in Paris. He first had some lessons from Jean-Baptiste Claudot and Jean Girardet in Nancy...
[1759–1832) and Jean-Baptiste Isabey
Jean-Baptiste Isabey
Jean-Baptiste Isabey was a French painter born at Nancy.At nineteen, after some lessons from Dumont, miniature painter to Marie Antoinette, he became a pupil of Jacques-Louis David...
[1767–1855). Their portraits of Napoleon
Napoleon I of France
Napoleon Bonaparte was a French military and political leader during the latter stages of the French Revolution.As Napoleon I, he was Emperor of the French from 1804 to 1815...
and his court are exceedingly fine, and perhaps no other Frenchman painted miniatures so well as did Augustin.
United States
The English style of portrait miniatures was also exported to the American colonies; among the earliest recorded American miniaturists is Mary RobertsMary Roberts (painter)
Mary Roberts was an American miniaturist active in Charleston, South Carolina in the 1740s and 1750s. One of the earliest American miniaturists, and the first woman recorded as working in the medium in the American colonies, she is also believed to have painted the first watercolor-on-ivory...
(died 1761), the first American woman to work in the form. Miniaturist Amalia Küssner Coudert
Amalia Küssner Coudert
Amalia Küssner Coudert was an American miniaturist known for her portraits of prominent figures of the late 19th century including Caroline Astor, King Edward VII, Czar Nicholas II of Russia and Cecil Rhodes.-Early life:...
(1863–1932), from Terre Haute, Indiana
Terre Haute, Indiana
Terre Haute is a city and the county seat of Vigo County, Indiana, United States, near the state's western border with Illinois. As of the 2010 census, the city had a total population of 60,785 and its metropolitan area had a population of 170,943. The city is the county seat of Vigo County and...
, was known for her portraits of New York socialites and European royalty in the last decade of the 19th century. Recipients of her watercolor on ivory portraits included Caroline Astor, King Edward VII
Edward VII of the United Kingdom
Edward VII was King of the United Kingdom and the British Dominions and Emperor of India from 22 January 1901 until his death in 1910...
, Czar Nicholas II of Russia and Cecil Rhodes.
Materials
From about 1650 onwards many fine miniatures were executed in vitreous enamel. Jean Petitot
Jean Petitot
Jean Petitot was a French-Swiss enamel painter.-Life:He was born at Geneva, a member of a Burgundian family which had fled from France on account of religious difficulties. His father, Faulle, was a wood carver. Jean was the fourth son, and was apprenticed to a jeweller goldsmith named Pierre...
1607–1691 was the greatest worker in this material, and painted his finest portraits in Paris for Louis XIV of France
Louis XIV of France
Louis XIV , known as Louis the Great or the Sun King , was a Bourbon monarch who ruled as King of France and Navarre. His reign, from 1643 to his death in 1715, began at the age of four and lasted seventy-two years, three months, and eighteen days...
. His son succeeded him in the same profession. Other artists in enamel were Christian Friedrich Zincke
Christian Friedrich Zincke
Christian Friedrich Zincke was a German miniature painter active in England in the 18th century.-Life:He was born in Dresden and died in London. He apprenticed his father and also studied painting. In 1706 he came to London to work at Charles Boit's studio, and when Boit left for France 8 years...
died 1767, Heinrich Hurter [1734–1799), David Liot, Paul Prieur, and Johann Melchior Dinglinger
Johann Melchior Dinglinger
Johann Melchior Dinglinger was one of Europe's greatest goldsmiths, whose major works for the elector of Saxony, Augustus the Strong, survived in the Grünes Gewölbe , Dresden....
. Many of these artists were either Frenchmen or Swiss, but most of them visited England and worked there for a while. The greatest English enamel portrait painter was Henry Bone
Henry Bone
Henry Bone was an English enamel painter who was also officially employed in that capacity by three successive monarchs - George III, George IV and William IV. In his early career he worked as a porcelain and jewelry painter...
[1755–1839). A great collection of his small enamel reproductions of celebrated paintings is in Buckingham Palace
Buckingham Palace
Buckingham Palace, in London, is the principal residence and office of the British monarch. Located in the City of Westminster, the palace is a setting for state occasions and royal hospitality...
.
During the 18th century, watercolour on ivory became the standard medium. The use of ivory was first adopted in around 1700, during the latter part of the reign of William III
William III of England
William III & II was a sovereign Prince of Orange of the House of Orange-Nassau by birth. From 1672 he governed as Stadtholder William III of Orange over Holland, Zeeland, Utrecht, Guelders, and Overijssel of the Dutch Republic. From 1689 he reigned as William III over England and Ireland...
; miniatures prior to that time having been painted on vellum, chicken-skin or cardboard, a few on the backs of playing cards, and many more on very thin vellum closely mounted on to playing cards.