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Request to view at the Prints & Drawings Study Room, level F , Case RMC, Shelf 1, Box B

An Unknown Man

Portrait Miniature
1610 (painted)
Artist/Maker
Isaac Oliver (artist)
Place of origin
England (painted)

A striking miniature which, apart from slight flaking around the edge, is in excellent condition. It is a particularly good instance of the relationship of Isaac Oliver’s portrait to the series of large-scale portraits by William Larkin, executed simultaneously, which set out to achieve the same glossy, startling effect. The identity as John Donne engraved on the back of the metal locket can be discounted.


Object details

Categories
Paintings
Portraits
Object type
Portrait miniature
TitleAn Unknown Man (generic title)
Materials and techniques
Watercolour on vellum stuck to a playing card with three spades verso.
Vellum
Watercolour
Painting
Brief description
Portrait miniature of an unknown man, watercolour on vellum, painted by Isaac Oliver, 1610.
Physical description
Portrait miniature on vellum of an unknown man.
Dimensions
  • Height: 55mm
  • Width: 41mm
  • Case height: 73mm
  • Case width: 44mm
  • Case depth: 5mm
Dimensions taken from: Strong, Roy. Artists of the Tudor Court: the Portrait Miniature Rediscovered 1520-1620.. London: The Victoria and Albert Museum, 1983.
Styles
English School
Stuart
Jacobean
Marks and inscriptions
'IO [in monogram] 1610' (Signed and dated to the right)
Gallery label
Credit line
Bequeathed by George Salting
Object history
COLLECTIONS: S. Addington sale Christie’s 26th April 1883 (lot 96); J. Lumsden Propert Collection; purchased at its dispersal, 1897, by George Salting and bequeathed by him with his collection to the V&A, 1910.”
Subject depicted
Man
Summary
A striking miniature which, apart from slight flaking around the edge, is in excellent condition. It is a particularly good instance of the relationship of Isaac Oliver’s portrait to the series of large-scale portraits by William Larkin, executed simultaneously, which set out to achieve the same glossy, startling effect. The identity as John Donne engraved on the back of the metal locket can be discounted.
Bibliographic references
  • Strong, Roy. Artists of the Tudor Court: the Portrait Miniature Rediscovered 1520-1620. London: The Victoria and Albert Museum, 1983. Cat. 169, p. 111. Part Citation: "A striking miniature which, apart from slight flaking around the edge, is in excellent condition. It is a particularly good instance of the relationship of Oliver’s portrait to the series of large-scale portraits by William Larkin, executed simultaneously, which set out to achieve the same glossy, startling effect (e.g. especially Roy Strong, The English Icon, p. 327 (349)). The identity as John Donne can be discounted."
  • p. 28 Catharine MacLeod with Rab MacGibbon, Victoria Button, Katherine Coombs and Alan Derbyshire.‎ Elizabethan treasures : miniatures by Hilliard and Oliver. London : National Portrait Gallery, 2019.‎ ISBN: 9781855147027‎
Collection
Prints, Drawings & Paintings Collection
Accession number
P.129-1910

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Record createdJune 30, 2009
Record URL
https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O1067943/an-unknown-man-portrait-miniature-isaac-oliver/
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