Image of Gallery in South Kensington
Request to view at the Prints & Drawings Study Room, level F , Case RMC, Shelf 1, Box I

An Unknown Man

Portrait Miniature
1675-1680 (painted)
Artist/Maker
Place of origin

Portrait of a young man, head and shoulders, turned slightly to left and looking to front; the sitter is wearing a long wig and a neckcloth of patterned lace. Features stippled in brown, sanguine, blue and yellow, with some white heightening, on a pale carnation ground; hair in brown wash, hatched with darker colour and with gouache lights over the carnation; cravat in white with some brown hatching over a pale brown-grey wash; robe in blue washes modelled in dark brown; plain dark brown background; on vellum, probably originally put down on a leaf from a table-book.

Frame: Nineteenth-century oval locket of copper-gilt, the slightly convex back soldered into a rim which is stepped inward with a curved section and two straight steps to the bezel, which holds the rounded edges of the shallowly convex glass; the hanger of rectangular section, grooved down the middle, the ends bifurcating and looping back into diminishing spirals of seven turns.


Object details

Categories
Object type
TitleAn Unknown Man (generic title)
Materials and techniques
Watercolour probably originally put down on a leaf from a table-book
Brief description
Portrait miniature of a unknown man, watercolour on vellum, painted by Peter Cross, 1675-1680.
Physical description
Portrait of a young man, head and shoulders, turned slightly to left and looking to front; the sitter is wearing a long wig and a neckcloth of patterned lace. Features stippled in brown, sanguine, blue and yellow, with some white heightening, on a pale carnation ground; hair in brown wash, hatched with darker colour and with gouache lights over the carnation; cravat in white with some brown hatching over a pale brown-grey wash; robe in blue washes modelled in dark brown; plain dark brown background; on vellum, probably originally put down on a leaf from a table-book.

Frame: Nineteenth-century oval locket of copper-gilt, the slightly convex back soldered into a rim which is stepped inward with a curved section and two straight steps to the bezel, which holds the rounded edges of the shallowly convex glass; the hanger of rectangular section, grooved down the middle, the ends bifurcating and looping back into diminishing spirals of seven turns.
Dimensions
  • Height: 70.5cm
  • Width: 57cm
Dimensions taken from John Murdoch Seventeenth-century English Miniatures in the collection of the Victoria and Albert Museum. London: The Stationery Office, 1997.
Content description
Portrait of a young man, turned slightly to left and wearing a long wig and neckcloth.
Styles
Marks and inscriptions
'PC' (Signed lower left, in yellow)
Credit line
Purchased from the funds of the R. H. Stephenson Bequest
Object history
Provenance: In 1865 in the possession of the 6th Earl of Chesterfield; evidently by descent with the title rather than the property after 1871, until c.1916; subsequently with HE Backer ( the dealer), from whom purchased by the Museum, September 1952.
Subjects depicted
Bibliographic references
  • Victoria & Albert Museum Department of Prints and Drawings and Department of Paintings, Accessions 1952. London: HMSO, 1963.
  • Murdoch, John. Seventeenth-century English Miniatures in the collection of the Victoria and Albert Museum. London: The Stationery Office, 1997.
Collection
Accession number
P.29-1952

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Record createdJune 30, 2009
Record URL
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