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An Unknown Lady

Portrait Miniature
ca. 1615 (painted)
Artist/Maker
Isaac Oliver (artist)
Place of origin
England (painted)

Portrait miniature of a woman, half-length, in an oval frame.

Object details

Categories
Portraits
Paintings
Object type
Portrait miniature
TitleAn Unknown Lady (generic title)
Materials and techniques
Watercolour on vellum stuck to plain card
Watercolour
Vellum
Cardboard
Painting
Brief description
Portrait miniature of a woman, watercolour on vellum, painted by Isaac Oliver, ca. 1615.
Physical description
Portrait miniature of a woman, half-length, in an oval frame.
Dimensions
  • Height: 54mm
  • Width: 43mm
  • Case height: 64mm (without loop)
  • Case height: 76mm (With loop)
  • Case width: 50mm
  • Case depth: 7mm
Dimensions taken from: Strong, Roy. Artists of the Tudor Court: the Portrait Miniature Rediscovered 1520-1620.. London: The Victoria and Albert Museum, 1983.
Content description
Portrait of a woman, half-length, turned to and looking to front; the sitter is wearing a ruff, earring in her left ear and a dress richly decorated with foliage.
Styles
Stuart
Jacobean
English School
Marks and inscriptions
'IO' (Signed in monogram above the shoulder right)
Credit line
Given by Mrs Emma Joseph
Object history
COLLECTIONS: Given by Mrs Emma Joseph, widow of S. S. Joseph, 1941. Previous history unknown.
Subjects depicted
Woman
Ruff
Earring
Bibliographic references
  • Strong, Roy. Artists of the Tudor Court: the Portrait Miniature Rediscovered 1520-1620. London: The Victoria and Albert Museum, 1983. Cat. 177, p. 115. Part Citation: "A fussy, late miniature, Hilliardesque in mood, with a greater concern for the details of the dress, lace and embroidery that with any deep interpretation of character. In good condition apart from very slight paint losses, fading and oxidization. There is not substance to the identity given to it as “Lady Hunsdon”. This is a typical instance of Oliver in an unadventurous mood when the sitter clearly did not interest him."
  • Victoria and Albert Museum, Department of Engraving, Illustration and Design and Department of Paintings, Accessions 1941, London: HMSO, 1954.
Collection
Prints, Drawings & Paintings Collection
Accession number
P.39-1941

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Record createdJune 30, 2009
Record URL
https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O1067942/an-unknown-lady-portrait-miniature-isaac-oliver/
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