Physical description
[Miniature] Portrait, bust, to right and looking to front; wearing a ruff collar. Features stippled and hatched in strokes of very pale brown, grey and sanguine, with white highlights in the eyes, on a pale carnation ground hair in long strokes of dark grey-brown over a pale brown wash, stippled in dark grey at the hair-line; ruff in impasted white over grey wash; doublet in black wash modelled in grey; background in dark blue grey, shadowed lower right with dark grey hatches; a gold marginal strip; on vellum put down on a leaf from a table-book, and the whole mounted on a subsidiary piece of pasteboard.
[Lid] An oval portrait-box turned on the back and lid with concentric mouldings around a central rose; repaired with a brass band to which is fixed a circular ring hanger. Inside the lid is a label inscribed: Wm. Herbert / Earl of Pembroke / by P. Oliver / signed. Evidently a replacement for an original locker with a hinged lid.
Place of Origin
England, Great Britain (painted)
Date
1620-1622 (painted)
ca. 1620 (made)
Artist/maker
Oliver, Peter, born 1589 - died 1647 (artist)
Materials and Techniques
[Miniature] Watercolour on vellum, put down on a leaf from a table-book and mounted on pasteboard
[Lid] Turned ivory
Marks and inscriptions
[Miniature] 'PO'
[Miniature] 'William Shakespeare / by Peter Oliver £ [6?] 00 -'
Dimensions
[Miniature] Height: 52 mm, Width: 43 mm
Object history note
Provenance: Samuel Addington, his sale, Christie's 26 April 1883, lot 98, bt. Joseph (110 gns, and by him sold to J L Propert; FAS 1897, bt. Salting, and by him bequeathed to the Museum, 1910.
Descriptive line
Portrait miniature of William Herbert, Earl of Pembroke in an eliptical box of turned ivory. Watercolour on vellum, painted by Peter Oliver, 1620-1622.
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 9, pp.24-25. Full Citation:
"Unknown Man
1620-2
P.133-1910
Oval 52 x 43 mm
Features stippled and hatched in strokes of very pale brown, grey and sanguine, with white highlights in the eyes, on a pale carnation ground hair in long strokes of dark grey-brown over a pale brown wash, stippled in dark grey at the hair-line; ruff in impasted white over grey wash; doublet in black wash modelled in grey; background in dark blue grey, shadowed lower right with dark grey hatches; a gold marginal strip; on vellum put down on a leaf from a table-book, and the whole mounted on a subsidiary piece of pasteboard.
Condition: Apparently faded in the flesh-tones but mainly excellent; a small nick in the apex of the oval for the catch of the original locket.
Signed: In gold, centre right: PO (interlaced); Inscribed on the back in graphite by a nineteenth-century hand: William Shakespeare / by Peter Oliver £ [6?] 00 -.
Frame: An oval portrait-box turned on the back and lid with concentric mouldings around a central rose; repaired with a brass band to which is fixed a circular ring hanger. Inside the lid is a label inscribed: Wm. Herbert / Earl of Pembroke / by P. Oliver / signed. Evidently a replacement for an original locker with a hinged lid.
Provenance: Samuel Addington, his sale, Christie's 26 April 1883, lot 98, bt. Joseph (110 gns, and by him sold to J L Propert; FAS 1897, bt. Salting, and by him bequeathed to the Museum, 1910.
Exhibited: BFAC 1889, no. 45, p. 100, and pl. VIII; New Gallery, Regent Street, The Royal House of Tudor, 1890, no. 1127; FAS 1897, no. 33; New Haven etc. 1981-2, no.32.
Literature: Propert 1887, p. 255, repro. facing p. 60; Williamson 1897, p. 156; Salting Collection, 1911, p. 41, fig. 2; Foster 1911 (attributed to Isaac Oliver); Long 1929, p. 321; Long 1930, p. 52, repro. no. 17; Schidloff 1964, vol. II, p. 602; Summary Catalogue 1981, p. 42; Murdoch 1981, pl. 17b (repro in colour).
The miniature had presumably lost its original locket before some enterprising nineteenth-century dealer, fancying a resemblance to the Droeshout image of Shakespeare, supplied that identification and reinforced it with the sixteenth-century style portrait-box, either an old one already broken, or a new one made to look old and broke. Turned ivory is exceptionally difficult to date.
Although the inscription referring to Shakespeare and the price were too obviously a ramp, Addington and subsequent owners still believed that the sitter was William Herbert, 3rd Earl of Pembroke (1580-1630). This Herbert identification was, presumably faute de mieux, as close as the portrait could plausibly be brought to Shakespeare: Herbert having been the patron of Shakespeare and, romantically, a candidate for the identity of Mr W H.
But the Herbert portraiture is not compatible with this miniature. The three relevant images are: a) of 1617, variously attributed to Gheeraerts (Munthe Collection), van Blijenberch (Powis Castle) and Van Somer (Royal Collection); b) of c.1625, by Mytens (a very numerous type well exemplified at Wilton); and a posthumous classicising image by Van Dyck, also at Wilton. In all he has a distinct widow's peak instead of the straight hair-line of this sitter, and he has a fleshier, less austere face. Also he always wears his Garter ribbon and George, and carries his staff as Lord Chamberlain.
The use of a table-book leaf for the support in the early 1620s is interesting; see Gerbier, Cat. No. 2 The use of pasteboard to provide supplementary support may be experimental, suggesting relatively little confidence in the 'new' material. Case packing, provided by the silversmith, would not normally be glued to the miniature."
Exhibition History
Historical Collection of Miniatures formed by Mr J Lumsden Propert (Fine Art Society 01/01/1897-31/12/1897)
Exhibition of Portrait Miniatures (Burlington Fine Arts Club 1889-1889)
The English Miniature (Yale Center for British Art 1981-1982)
The Royal House of Tudor (New Gallery 01/01/1899-31/12/1899)
Materials
Watercolour; Vellum
Techniques
Painting
Subjects depicted
Pembroke, William Herbert (3rd Earl of)
Categories
Portraits; Frames
Collection code
PDP
