Physical description
Portrait, slightly to right and looking to front, and wearing a ruff. Features in dark brown hatches with touches of sanguine and grey, white highlights in the eyes, red in the lips, on a pale creamy carnation ground; hair in dark brown and black over a pale brown wash, stippled in dark colour at the hair-line; ruff in impasted white over a pale brown; doublet modelled in pale grey and black over black wash; background a solid blue wash, shadowed above the shoulder in fine dark grey hatches; on vellum put down on pasteboard, apparently a playing card (diamond?) and the whole mounted in a rectangular vellum, ruled and inscribed in gold with a crimson 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
Holland (probably, painted)
Date
ca. 1620-1625 (painted)
Artist/maker
Oliver, Peter, born 1589 - died 1647 (artist)
Materials and Techniques
Watercolour on vellum put down on pasteboard
Marks and inscriptions
'PO'
'LVDOVICVS / Phi=lippus / Dux Sime-rensis'
Dimensions
Height: 49 mm, Width: 39.5 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 Ludwig Philipp, Duke of Simmern, watercolour on vellum, painted by Peter Oliver, 1620-1625.
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 13, pp. 30-31. Full Citation:
“Ludwig Philipp, Duke of Simmern
1620-5
P28-1975
Oval 49 x 39.5 mm
Features in dark brown hatches with touches of sanguine and grey, white highlights in the eyes, red in the lips, on a pale creamy carnation ground; hair in dark brown and black over a pale brown wash, stippled in dark colour at the hair-line; ruff in impasted white over a pale brown; doublet modelled in pale grey and black over black wash; background a solid blue wash, shadowed above the shoulder in fine dark grey hatches; on vellum put down on pasteboard, apparently a playing card (diamond?) and the whole mounted in a rectangular vellum, ruled and inscribed in gold with a crimson margin.
Condition: Apparently flawless
Signed: In gold, centre right: PO (interlaced) Inscribed on the mount: LVDOVICVS / Phi=lippus / Dux Sime-rensis.
Frame: As for Cat. No. 12 [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].
Provenance: As for Cat. No. 12 [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. 235; New Gallery Regent Street, The Monarchs of Great Britain and Ireland 1901-2, no. 223; Objects: The V&A Collects 1974-8, May-August 1978, unnumbered; New Haven etc. 1981-2, no. 35.
Literature: Gower 1882, vol. II, pl. 24; Foster 1898, pl. 116; Williamson 1904, vol. I, p. 32 (as Frederick, Elector Palatine); Country Life. 19 May 1928, Christie’s pre-sale advertisement, repro. p. lix; Long 1929, p. 332; Summary Catalogue, 1981, p. 42; Murdoch 1981, p. 94, pl. 17a (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.
Ludwig Philipp was brother-in-law of Princess Elizabeth (‘of Bohemia’), and the youngest son of Frederick IV, Elector Palatine. On his brother’s accession as Elector in 1610, he assumed the minor family title of Duke of Simeren (Simmern), and committed himself irrevocably to his brother’s cause when, in 1619, he accompanied Frederick and Elizabeth to Prague to claim the crown of Bohemia. Like Frederick he lost all in the debacle of the family ambitions, and joined Elizabeth and Frederick at The Hague in 1621. This portrait, which dates on costume and style to the early 1620a, must belong to the same group of ‘Bohemian’ propaganda portraits as the slightly later Elizabeth images (Cat. Nos. 10, 11 and 12 [Dyce 88; P.2-1917; P.27-1975]). Like the last it has the archaising ‘Elizabethan’ solid blue background.
Portraits of Ludwig are rare and, as a subsidiary figure in British/European history, he has been omitted from the national iconographies. Like Charles Louis and Rupert, sons of Elizabeth in the next generation, however, Frederick V and Ludwig seem to have looked very much like one another. Probably some of the Frederick images are actually of his younger brother. This miniature provides a touchstone.”
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
Duke; Ruff; Simmern, Louis Philip (Duke of)
Categories
Portraits; Royalty; Paintings
Collection code
PDP
