Physical description
Portrait of a middle-aged man, head and shoulders, turned slightly to left and looking to left; the sitter is wearing a black cap, a fur mantle and a ruff; inscriptions in gold on either side of the portrait on a blue background. The painting set in a gold circular frame with raised concentric circles.
Place of Origin
England, Great Britain (possibly, painted)
France (possibly, painted)
Date
1576-1577 (painted)
Artist/maker
Hilliard, Nicholas, born 1542 - died 1619 (artist)
Materials and Techniques
Watercolour on vellum laid onto plain card
Marks and inscriptions
'Aetatis suae 58 / Anno Dni. 157[?] [restored to a 7]'
'Hilliard the / Father painted by his / son – See an acct of these / pictures in H. Walpole’s / anec. Of pai[n]ting vol I art / Hilliard / These pictures were in the col / lection of the last and only Earl / of Leicester and were given by / him to the late field / Marshall Sir Robert / Rich / C E Liddell.'
Dimensions
Diameter: 41 mm
Descriptive line
Portrait miniature of Richard Hilliard, watercolour on vellum, painted by Nicholas Hilliard, 1576 of 1577.
Bibliographic References (Citation, Note/Abstract, NAL no)
Strong, Roy. Artists of the Tudor Court: the Portrait Miniature Rediscovered 1520-1620.. London: The Victoria and Albert Museum, 1983.
Cat. 48, pp. 58-59. Full Citation:
"NICHOLAS HILLIARD
Richard Hilliard 157(7?)
Victoria & Albert Museum (P.154-1910)
Vellum stuck onto card, the back of which has been obscured by another card stuck to it at a later date, circular, 41 mm, 1 19/32 in. diam.
Richard Hilliard (1518/19-1594), goldsmith of Exeter, was of reformist bent and father of Nicholas.
The descent of this miniature is identical to that of the self-portrait (no. 49) which, as in the case of the latter, presupposes the miniature was painted in France or that Hilliard was in England for a period during his known time in France, if the date of 1577 is correct. V. J. Murrell points out that the last figure of the date has completely flaked away and that it could have been erroneously restored. Auerbach (Hilliard, p. 2) established Richard’s birth to 1518/19 and, as he is fifty-eight in the miniature, this would give us a date of either 1576 or 1577. If the former it could work as having been painted just before the artist left for France which was by July 1576.
Condition is generally good apart from flaking in the background which has been restored with a paint that has discoloured. The miniature was once set into a frame along the lines of that still around Alice Brandon (no. 77) which bore an inscription recorded by De Piles: Ricardux Hilliardus quondam vice-comes civitatis et comitatus Exonia, anno 1560, aetatis suae 58, annoq(ue) Domini 1577 (Art of Painting, London, 1706, p. 431). This was discarded (see under Nicholas No. 49) when it was inset into a snuff-box.
An eighteenth century copy is in the Buccleuch collection (Auerbach, Hilliard, p. 293 (32)).
INSCRIBED: On either side of the head: Aetatis suae 58 / Anno Dni. 157(?) (restored to a 7) On a paper at the back of the frame an inscription by Lady Caroline Liddell: Hilliard the / Father painted by his / son – See an acct of these / pictures in H. Walpole’s / anec. Of pai(n)ting vol I art / Hilliard / These pictures were in the col / lection of the last and only Earl / of Leicester and were given by / him to the late field / Marshall Sir Robert / Rich / C E Liddell.
COLLECTIONS: The descent is identical to the one of Nicholas (see no. 49) [This or both this and the one of Richard Hilliard (no. 48) are referred to in the will of Laurence Hilliard dated February 21st 1640 bequeathing to his son, Thomas, “by way of Leagacey my gran Father(s) (pic) Hillyard his picture in an ivrey box with a Cristall vpponst” (Auerbach , Hilliard, p. 227) this originally read “my Fathars pic” and was altered to “my gran Fathar”; both are next referred to by de Piles in 1706 when in the possession of Simon Fanshaw: “There are moreover, two wonderful pieces of his, now in the Possession of Simon Fanshaw, Esq; and by him valu’d, nor without reason, as ‘tis the opinion of some good Judges, at above 50 Guineas each, tho’ not much bigger than a Crown-Piece. One of these is the Picture of our Artist himself, with this / inscription in Gold Letters round it. / Nicolaus… / The other is the Picture of his Father…These two pictures in Miniature are so Masterly done, that not only the Faces are finely colour’d an naturally with a good Rilievo; but that almost each single Hair is express’d.” (De Piles, The Art of Painting, London 1706, pp. 430-31 and Vertue. Notebooks, II, p. 129); both were acquired by John Sidney, 6th Earl of Leicester (1680-1737) and passed on his death to his brother Jocelyn Sidney, 7th and last Earl of Leicester (d. 1743); these facts are recorded by Vertue when he saw them at Leicester House in 1735 and in addition he records: “the writeing round these two pictures and the gilt mettal Frames first made for them was taken away and the two pictures sett in a gold Snuff box – by the present Earl of Leicester who had them from his Brother. but I wish them to be returned into their old Frames again” (Vertue, Notebooks, IV, p. 80); Walpole records that the Earl of Leicester gave the snuff box to Field-Marshal Sir Robert Rich, Bt, (Anecdotes of Painting in England, London, 1782, ed, I, p. 257 note); descended from Sir Robert Rich, 4th Bt, (1685-1768) to his son, Lt- General Sir Robt Rich, 5th Bt, (1714-85); they passed from him to a Mrs Clavering who gave them to her niece, Caroline Elizabeth (d. 1890), eldest daughter of George, 5th Viscount Barrington, in 1843 on her marriage to the Hon Thomas Liddell; she, in turn, gave them to her niece, Mary Frances (d. 1913), daughter of William, 6th Viscount Barrington, and wife of Alfred Sartoris; she sold them at Christie’s 27th June 1906 (lot 76); bt, Hodgkins; acquired by George Salting and bequeathed by him with his collection to the V&A, 1910].
LITERATURE: V&A, 1947 (13). Auerbach, Hilliard, pp. 70-71, pl. 31; 292 (30).”
Exhibition History
Artists of the Tudor Court: the portrait miniature rediscovered, 1520-1620 (Victoria and Albert Museum 09/07/1983-06/11/19833)
Production Note
This miniature was painted in 1576 or 1577. Richard Hilliard left for France by July 1576, so it is unclear whether the portrait was painted in England or France.
Materials
Watercolour; Vellum
Techniques
Painting
Subjects depicted
Man; Ruff; Fur; Mantle; Hilliard, Richard
Categories
Portraits; Paintings
Collection code
PDP
