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

A Man, called Abraham Cowley

Portrait Miniature
1663-1667 (painted)
Artist/Maker
Place of origin

Portrait of a man, head and shoulders, turned to right and looking to left, and wearing a blue cloak over his right shoulder. Features in loose, rapid, crossing strokes of brown, sanguine and blue-grey; dark blue and pink in the eyes with black and touches of white; the warts in raised sanguine spots; on a pale carnation ground; hair in long, loose strokes of pale brown and off-white over a paler brown wash, and modelled in grey; robe in a solid blue wash, modelled with darker colour and with the lights in white; background to the left a solid brown wash and to the right a sky in pale blue wash heavily hatched with grey and brown, and with touches of white in the clouds; on vellum put down on a leaf from a table-book.

Frame: Seventeenth-century oval gold locket, convex back and straight sides with a broad central channel flaring out to the bezel, which holds the shallowly convex glass by its bevelled edge; the hanger of broad flattened section, channelled down the middle and bifurcating into diminishing spirals of flat wire of four turns; below the base of the hanger, the back is engraved with scroll-and-leaf ornament which is arranged to continue the line downwards of the hanger. A label on the back of the locket is inscribed in Wallop's hand: T.Flatman/ Abraham Cowley / c.1665.


Object details

Categories
Object type
TitleA Man, called Abraham Cowley (popular title)
Materials and techniques
Watercolour on vellum put down on a leaf from a table-book
Brief description
Portrait miniature of an unknown man known as Abraham Cowley, ca. 1660-1667, watercolour on vellum, painted by Thomas Flatman (1635-1688).
Physical description
Portrait of a man, head and shoulders, turned to right and looking to left, and wearing a blue cloak over his right shoulder. Features in loose, rapid, crossing strokes of brown, sanguine and blue-grey; dark blue and pink in the eyes with black and touches of white; the warts in raised sanguine spots; on a pale carnation ground; hair in long, loose strokes of pale brown and off-white over a paler brown wash, and modelled in grey; robe in a solid blue wash, modelled with darker colour and with the lights in white; background to the left a solid brown wash and to the right a sky in pale blue wash heavily hatched with grey and brown, and with touches of white in the clouds; on vellum put down on a leaf from a table-book.

Frame: Seventeenth-century oval gold locket, convex back and straight sides with a broad central channel flaring out to the bezel, which holds the shallowly convex glass by its bevelled edge; the hanger of broad flattened section, channelled down the middle and bifurcating into diminishing spirals of flat wire of four turns; below the base of the hanger, the back is engraved with scroll-and-leaf ornament which is arranged to continue the line downwards of the hanger. A label on the back of the locket is inscribed in Wallop's hand: T.Flatman/ Abraham Cowley / c.1665.
Dimensions
  • Height: 66mm
  • Width: 54mm
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 man with a blue cloak over his right shoulder.
Styles
Marks and inscriptions
  • 'TF' (Signed in ochre, centre left)
  • '... Thomas ...' (Inscribed on the back in impressed metal-point, erased and only dubiously legible, possibly the word; also some small sketches with the brush in grey wash, and a diagram of the structure of a head, with another head in three-quarter front view. )
Credit line
Alan Evans Bequest, given by the National Gallery
Object history
Provenance: By 1889, Sir Francis Cook, Bart; acquired by the Hon. F H A Wallop before 1927; lent to the V&A 1927-49; ownership transferred to Alan Evans, June 1933, and by him bequeathed to the National Gallery, 1974; placed on indeterminate loan at the V&A.
Subjects depicted
Bibliographic reference
Murdoch, John. Seventeenth-century English Miniatures in the Collection of the Victoria & Albert Museum. London: The Stationery Office in association with the Victoria & Albert Museum, 1997.
Collection
Accession number
EVANS.21

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Record createdJuly 3, 2003
Record URL
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