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

Mrs Edward Norgate

Portrait Miniature
1616-1617 (painted)
Artist/Maker
Place of origin

It used to be thought that this miniature was by Edward Norgate because of an inscription on the reverse. But in her book Hilliard and Oliver (1983, pp. 182-3), Mary Edmond argues that although the inscription is by Norgate this does not mean that he was the painter of the miniature. The style of the painting indicates that the miniature is probably by Peter Oliver. He was a friend and possibly a cousin of Norgate. The inscription identifies the sitter as Judith Norgate (born Lanier).


Object details

Categories
Object type
TitleMrs Edward Norgate (generic title)
Materials and techniques
Watercolour on vellum put down on pasteboard
Brief description
Portrait miniature of Mrs Edward Norgate, watercolour on vellum, painted by Peter Oliver, 1616-1617.
Physical description
Portrait, head and shoulders, slightly to right and looking to front; wearing a lace cap, ruff collar, richly embroidered bodice and a blue gown. Features hatched and stippled firmly in brown and sanguine, with some white blended in and touches of local colour in eyes and lips; hair in brown wash worked over with darker colour and with the lights in pale gouache, especially to the left; all over a pale carnation ground; the dress in opaque grey wash, the flowers in green, yellow and pink, and the coat in opaque blue washes with the lights in paler colour; cap and ruff in pale grey wash, worked over in white and with the lace in embossed white; gold-work in the dress, the ear-ring and the gold marginal strip in metallic gold over ochre; background a red curtain, floated wet-in-wet, hatched with darker colour and with the lights in gouache, not taken out; on vellum put down on pasteboard (playing card, one spade visible).

Frame: A presumably old, and perhaps original, double-sided oval locket, the lid for this miniature is now missing; of plain gold strip enclosing fields of black composition (perhaps jet); the hanger a round loop of square section set obliquely on quatrefoil scroll (repeated at the bottom), which includes on the back a pin fixing, and on the front the peg for closing the lid; at the base, a loop for the missing pearl.
Dimensions
  • Estimate height: 24.2cm
  • Estimate width: 26.3cm
Dimensions taken from Catalogue of Foreign Paintings, I. Before 1800, C.M. Kauffmann, Victoria and Albert Museum, London, 1973
Styles
Marks and inscriptions
'Juditha Norgate. / .1617. aet: 25 / Non obijt sed abijt. / Pudictae Pietatis, / et Venustatis rarissimum / decus. / Suauissimae Conuigi / Ed: Norgate' (Inscribed on the back in ink in a fine scribal hand)
Translation
'Judith Norgate. 1617. aged 25 She has not died buy gone away. Most special ornament of modesty, piety and beauty. To the most sweet wife [signed] Edward Norgate'
Gallery label
Treasures of the Royal Courts: Tudors, Stuarts and the Russian Tsars Mrs Judith Norgate (born Lanier) About 1616–17 England By Peter Oliver Watercolour on vellum, stuck to pasteboard Purchased with funds from the Captain H.B. Murray Bequest V&A P.71-1935
Credit line
Purchased with funds from the Murray Bequest
Object history
Provenance: Miss Agnes Probyn of Gloucestershire, by whom given to Mrs Julia O Jones (widow of a General Jones of Gloucestershire; the family originally lived at Naes House, near Lydney), from whom purchased privately by the Museum with funds from the Capt. H B Murray Bequest, 1935.
Production
As argued by Mary Edmond in her book "Hilliard and Oliver" (Hale, 1983), pp.182-3, the inscription identifying the portrait as of Judith Norgate (born Lanier) is by Edward Norgate, but does not indicate authorship of the miniature itself. Style suggests it is by Peter Oliver, who was a friend and possibly cousin of Norgate.
Subjects depicted
Summary
It used to be thought that this miniature was by Edward Norgate because of an inscription on the reverse. But in her book Hilliard and Oliver (1983, pp. 182-3), Mary Edmond argues that although the inscription is by Norgate this does not mean that he was the painter of the miniature. The style of the painting indicates that the miniature is probably by Peter Oliver. He was a friend and possibly a cousin of Norgate. The inscription identifies the sitter as Judith Norgate (born Lanier).
Bibliographic reference
Murdoch, John. Seventeenth-century English Miniatures in the collection of the Victoria and Albert Museum. London: The Stationery Office, 1997.
Collection
Accession number
P.71-1935

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Record createdJuly 14, 2003
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