An Unknown Man

Physical description

[Miniature] Portrait, bust, slighly to right and looking to front; wearing a ruff collar. Features hatched and stippled firmly in dark brown with delicate sanguine stipples, grey and yellow in the shadows, touches of white and dark blue in the eyes, and red in the lips, on a yellowish carnation ground; hair in heavily gummed dark brown with ochre lights over brown wash, stippled at the hair-line and round the moustache and chin; ruff in impasted with some modelling in grey, brown and yellow over a pale brown wash; doublet modelled in black and pale grey over a grey wash; background a red curtain in lake, floated wet-in-wet; a gold marginal strip; on vellum put down on pasteboard (a playing card, parts of two spades).

[Lid] Seventeenth-century oval gold locket, the convex back and front enamelled in translucent dark blue over an engraved diaper; the sides in champleve enamel with gold stylised flowers alternating with paired scrolls; the hanger, cut and chased from sheet gold, and enamelled in dark blue and white champleve enamels, is a simple round loop supported on symmetrical scrolls with a quatrefoil in the middle; at top and bottom there are hinge and catch attachments, and at the bottom a ring for a missing pearl. This description is taken from John Murdoch "Seventeenth-century English Miniatures in the Collection of the Victoria and Albert Museum" (1997), Cat. No. 7.

Place of Origin

England, Great Britain (probably, made)

Date

1619 (painted)
ca. 1619 (made)

Artist/maker

Oliver, Peter, born 1589 - died 1647 (artist)

Materials and Techniques

[Miniature] Watercolour on vellum put down on pasteboard
[Lid] Enamelled gold

Marks and inscriptions

[Miniature] 'PO / 1619'

Dimensions

[Miniature] Height: 49 mm, Width: 41 mm

Object history note

Provenance: Colonel Bramston, 20 Old Burlington Street, from whom purchased by the Museum, February 1888.

Descriptive line

Portrait miniature of an unknown man, dated 1619, painted on vellum and contained in a gold locket, painted by Peter Oliver (1594?-1647).

Bibliographic References (Citation, Note/Abstract, NAL no)

Murdoch, John. Seventeenth-century English Miniatures in the collection of the Victoria and Albert Museum. London: The Stationery Office, 1997.
Cat 7, p.22. Full Citation:
"Unknown Man
1619
P.117-1888
Oval 49 x 40 mm
Features hatched and stippled firmly in dark brown with delicate sanguine stipples, grey and yellow in the shadows, touches of white and dark blue in the eyes, and red in the lips, on a yellowish carnation ground; hair in heavily gummed dark brown with ochre lights over brown wash, stippled at the hair-line and round the moustache and chin; ruff in impasted with some modelling in grey, brown and yellow over a pale brown wash; doublet modelled in black and pale grey over a grey wash; background a red curtain in lake, floated wet-in-wet; a gold marginal strip; on vellum put down on pasteboard (a playing card, parts of two spades).
Condition: Severe flaking in the gummed passages, especially around the outline of the hair; damage at the apex of the oval from the catch of the locket; the features apparently well preserved, although some 'enhancement' seems to have been made to the colouring by a late nineteenth-century restorer.
Signed: In gold, lower centre right: PO [interlaced] / 1619.
Frame: Seventeenth-century oval gold locket, the convex back and front enamelled in translucent dark blue over an engraved diaper; the sides in champlevé enamel with gold stylised flowers alternating with paired scrolls; the hanger, cut and chased from sheet gold, and enamelled in dark blue and white champlevé enamels, is a simple round loop supported on symmetrical scrolls with a quatrefoil in the middle; at top and bottom are hinge and catch attachment, and at the bottom a ring for a missing pearl. (1)
Provenance: Colonel Bramston, 20 Old Burlington Street, from whom purchased by the Museum, February 1888.
Exhibited: Rome (Council of Europe), The Seventeenth Century in Europe, 1956-7, no.218.
Literature: Foster 1903, vol.II, p.31; Williamson 1904, vol.I, p.34, pl. XV, fig. 3; Catalogue of Minaitures, 1908, p.27, fig. 7; Goulding 1914-15, p.46; Long 1929, p.321; Long 1930, p.52, repros. no.19; Schidloff 1964, vol.II, p.602; Somers-Cocks 1980, pp.85-6; Summary Catalogue 1981, p.42.
A note in the Register quotes a letter from Sir George Scharf to Mr George Wallis: 'no garter, no royalty. Perhaps Harrington or Stirling.' Quite whom Scharf was thinking of is not clear - none of the various prominent Har[r]ingtons or Stirlings/Sterlings of the early seventeenth century is possible, being either dead or out of the country, too young or too old, in 1619. The miniature is, however, a very grand object in its enamelled gold locket and there is not evidence that the locket and miniature have been 'mated' at a later date, as in the case of the Hoskins portrait in the Fitzwilliam (see note 1). The sitter should therefore certainly be of the class of those who gave portraits and jewels to enforce or reward attachment, perhaps specifically within the circle of Elizabeth of Bohemia, who in 1619 was actively building up support for the Protestant forward policy in Europe. Stylistically also, the analogies are with the Nethersole (Cat. No.8) and the so-called Sir Robert Harley. (2)
1 See Somers-Cocks 1980, pp.85-6; Anna Somers-Cocks compares the diapered translucent enamel and the hanger of this locket with that on the case fitted to the Hoskins portrait, no.116 in the 1980 exhibition, lent by the Fitzwilliam Museum.
2 Welbeck Abbey (Murdoch 1981, fig. 91).

Exhibition History

The Seventeenth Century in Europe (Council of Europe 01/01/1956-31/12/1957)

Materials

Watercolour; Vellum

Techniques

Painting

Subjects depicted

Man; Ruff

Categories

Portraits; Paintings; Jewellery; Enamels; Frames

Collection code

PDP