Elizabeth of Bohemia

Physical description

Portrait, head and shoulders, slightly to left and looking to front; within an oval border in a rectangular frame. Features modelled in long hatches of brown and sanguine with some grey, with dark grey and white highlights in the eyes, and red for the lips, all on a pale warm carnation ground; hair in densely worked brown hatches over a pale brown wash; some long, soft grey-brown strokes at the hair line; the ruff in impasted white over pale brown wash; pear ear-rings in metallic gold, burnished silver and white; fichu in fine lines of white with some grey modelling over the carnation; pearls at the breast in burnished silver and white; dress in grey and brown over black wash; decoration in metallic gold with silver for the diamonds; rosettes at the shoulder and breast in crimson, gold and silver; background in solid blue, shaded with dark grey above the shoulders; on vellum put down on pasteboard, evidently a playing card (one hear?); the whole mounted in a rectangular vellum, and ruled and lettered in gold, with a blue margin.
Frame: A gilt rim of V-section knurled and channelled between bevels, the glass held in rebate and with a toothed copper strip to close the back; designed for fitting to a fabric-covered cushion frame.

Place of Origin

England, Great Britain (probably, painted)

Date

1623-1626 (painted)

Artist/maker

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

Materials and Techniques

Watercolour on vellum, put down on pasteboard

Marks and inscriptions

'PO'
'ELISA=BETHA / Regina Bohemiae'

Dimensions

Height: 48 mm, Width: 40 mm

Object history note

Provenance: James II, Louis XIV, the 'Jewel-Office' in Paris (see below); in 1801 presented by George, 2nd Earl Spencer (1758-1834) to James Edwards (1756-1816). Sold by the Revd E J Edwards, Christie’s 15 July 1820, bt William, 2nd Earl Beauchamp (d. 1823); Christie’s 3 February 1827, bt Revd Thomas Butt (1776-1841) whose wife was the widow of James Edwards; by descent to the Revd James Justinian George Edwards (d. 1844), to his sister Beatrice James (subsequently Lady Orde), to her nephew Capt. Justinian Edwards-Heathcote, eldest son of J J G Edwards (above); Christie’s 13 June 1928, by Mrs Doris Sassoon (subsequently Mrs Herschorn), and by her bequeathed to the V&A 1975.

Descriptive line

Portrait miniature of Elizabeth of Bohemia, daughter of James I, watercolour on vellum, painted by Peter Oliver, ca. 1623-1626.

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 12, pp. 28-30. Full Citation:
"Elizabeth of Bohemia
1623-6
P27-1975
Oval 48 x 40 mm
Features modelled in long hatches of brown and sanguine with some grey, with dark grey and white highlights in the eyes, and red for the lips, all on a pale warm carnation ground; hair in densely worked brown hatches over a pale brown wash; some long, soft grey-brown strokes at the hair line; the ruff in impasted white over pale brown wash; pear ear-rings in metallic gold, burnished silver and white; fichu in fine lines of white with some grey modelling over the carnation; pearls at the breast in burnished silver and white; dress in grey and brown over black wash; decoration in metallic gold with silver for the diamonds; rosettes at the shoulder and breast in crimson, gold and silver; background in solid blue, shaded with dark grey above the shoulders; on vellum put down on pasteboard, evidently a playing card (one heart?); the whole mounted in a rectangular vellum, and ruled and lettered in gold, with a blue margin.
Condition: Some of the silver blackened, but at the ear-rings and breast still bright; in general excellent.
Signed: In gold, centre left: PO (interlaced). Inscribed on the secondary mount: ELISA=BETHA / Regina Bohemiae.
Frame: A gilt rim of V-section knurled and channelled between bevels, the glass held in rebate and with a toothed copper strip to close the back; designed for fitting to a fabric-covered cushion frame (see below).
Provenance: James II, Louis XIV, the 'Jewel-Office' in Paris (see below); in 1801 presented by George, 2nd Earl Spencer (1758-1834) to James Edwards (1756-1816), who left and account of the circumstances with the miniatures to his son, the Revd E J Edwards:
About the year 1801, General - came to England to negotiate a treaty of peace with this nation; there was some secret our Government wished to gain private information of which could only be obtained through a private French family (name forgotten). Mr. Edwards…was breakfasting with Lord Spencer, then First Lord of the Admiralty, when this was mentioned. Mr Edwards was personally acquainted with this family, and told Lord Spencer that he could learn anything from them that he was desirous to know. Shortly after, Lord Spencer asked Mr Edwards to go over to Paris (promising him a safe conduct) to ascertain the particulars that the Government required. Having satisfactorily performed the business, he returned, and thought no more of it till six weeks after, he received a letter enclosing a draft from the Treasury for £500. Not understanding why this was presented to him, he took it to Lord Spencer, who said it was the usual payment for such a mission. Mr Edwards, not having anything to do with diplomacy, declined accepting it, having undertaken the negotiation as an act of private friendship to Lord Spencer.
Shortly after, Lord Spencer told Mr Edwards that he had something to offer him which he could not withstand thought he refused the money, for he had heard from the agents of the French Government that some of the neglected treasures of the Jewel-Office in Paris were to be sent to this country. So little was known of their value that these Stuart miniatures lay disregarded among the old chains and ornaments of this collection, which was accompanied with a written document, stating that James II had brought them over from England, and had deposited them with Louis XIV when he went to St. Germains, intending to reclaim them on his return. (1)
Sold by the Revd E J Edwards, Christie's 15 July 1820, bt William, 2nd Earl Beauchamp (d. 1823); Christie's 3 February 1827, bt Revd Thomas Butt (1776-1841) whose wife was the widow of James Edwards; by descent to the Revd James Justinian George Edwards (d. 1844), to his sister Beatrice James (subsequently Lady Orde), to her nephew Capt. Justinian Edwards-Heathcote, eldest son of J J G Edwards (above); Christie's 13 June 1928, by Mrs Doris Sassoon (subsequently Mrs Herschorn), and by her bequeathed to the V&A 1975.
Exhibited: New Gallery 1889, no. 234; New Gallery, Regent Street, The Monarchs of Great Britain and Ireland, 1901-2, no.232; V&A, Objects: The V&A Collects 1974-8, May-August 1978, unnumbered; New Haven etc. 1981-2, no. 34.
Literature: Gower 1882, vol. II: Trentham Vicarage, pl. 23; Foster 1898, p. 116; Foster 1903, vol. I, no. 42, pl. XXV; Williamson 1904, vol. I, p. 32; Country Life, 19 May 1928, Christie's pre-sale advertisement, repro. p. lix; Long 1929, p. 322; Summary Catalogue, 1981, p. 42; Murdoch 1981, p. 94, pl. 17e (repro. in colour; the date misprinted as c.1615); R P Edwards 'A Group of Stuart Miniatures and their History', Notes and Quotes, vol. 31, no. 3 (September 1984), pp. 352-6.
See entries for Cat. Nos. 10 [Dyce 88] and 11 [P.2-1917]. Like the latter, this miniature has presumably lost an original presentation case, but the superlative condition suggest that neither it nor its companions were lying about without a protective frame for years in the 'French Jewel-Office'.
The miniatures of the original 'Stuart' group were:
1 Nicholas Hilliard, Elizabeth I (now P23-1975)
2 Nicholas Hilliard, Mary Queen of Scots (P24-1975)
3 Nicholas Hilliard, Charles I as Duke of York (now P10-1947)
4 Nicholas Hilliard, Henry, Prince of Wales (now Royal Collection)
5 Peter Oliver, Lady Arabella Stuart (now Stockholm)
6 Peter Oliver, Henry, Prince of Wales (now Stockholm)
7 Peter Oliver, Elizabeth of Bohemia (the present miniature)
8 Peter Oliver, Ludwig Philipp, Duke of Simmern (now Cat. No. 13)
9 Nathaniel Thack, Anne of Gonzaga (now Cat. No. 43).
Gower's 1882 description of them reads:
This set of miniatures is mounted in small metal frames, on boards covered with white silk. The portraits of Queen Elizabeth, Queen Mary, the Duke of Simmern, the Queen of Bohemia, and Prince Henry are set in borders of parchment with gilt mounts and the names of the respective individuals inscribed in gilt letters. The others are set on the silk boards in narrow bronze-gilt frames. We imagine they were thus framed by Mr. Edwards but the parchment settings are probably of the time of James II.
Subsequent writer have adopted Gower's dating of the vellum mounts, but in the light of the clean unbraded condition of the miniatures, it is difficult to believe that they were not protected by original cases or at least by being enclosed collectively in a frame like other royal assemblages, while in the 'French Jewel-Office'. Possibly therefore they are 'antiquarian' settings designed for the miniatures by the original Mr Edwards (or even by Earl Beauchamp) early in the nineteenth century, for by 1827 the set was offered at Christie's 'in a frame with plate glass'. (2) The present frames on the Herschorn group are of a type which usually dates from later in the nineteenth century, so are probably from the period of ownership by the Revd. Edwards, rather than that of Mr James Edwards, as Gower surmised. Williamson's testimony, (3) that the miniatures were 'mounted by Mr Edwards in small metal frames set on boards covered with white silk', is obviously just a repetition of Gower.
1 Gower 1882, vol. II. Trentham Vicarage.
2 Information from Graham Reynolds, letter of 3 April 1989. Dr Rowan Watson (personal communication, August 1993) confirms the view that the vellum mounts are not seventeenth-century: 'His version of italics letters was used for engraved inscriptions in the seventeenth century as well as for writing. What is here hints of the facsimile, though individual letters are well shaped. The rationale of italics is a forward swing for ascenders and a backward swing for descenders, and efforts were made to accommodate letters like "h" to this movement in seventeenth-century examples. Here the "h" in "Bohemia" does not swing enough and refuses strangely to drop below the line; the "ae" ligature looks odd (though I have not traced an "ae" in seventeenth-century versions of this script). So I incline to a post-seventeenth-century date.'
3 Williamson 1904, vol. I, p.32."

Exhibition History

The English Miniature (Yale Center for British Art 1981-1982)
The English Miniature (Yale Center for British Art 1981-1982)
The English Miniature (Yale Center for British Art 1981-1982)
Objects: The V&A Collects 1974-8 (Victoria and Albert Museum May 1978-August 1978)
The Monarchs of Great Britain and Ireland (Victoria and Albert Museum 01/01/1901-31/12/1902)
The Royal House of Stuart (New Gallery 01/01/1889-31/12/1889)

Materials

Watercolour; Vellum

Techniques

Painting

Subjects depicted

Queen; Ruff; Elizabeth (Queen of Bohemia)

Categories

Portraits; Royalty; Paintings

Collection code

PDP