An Unknown Man
Portrait Miniature
ca.1690 (painted)
ca.1690 (painted)
Artist/Maker | |
Place of origin |
Portrait of a man, turned slightly to right, looking to front and wearing armour and a neckcloth of patterned. Features strongly hatched in long strokes of brown and sanguine, with dark blue for the eyes and touches of white for the highlights, on a very pale carnation ground; hair in brown wash hatched with darker colour and heightened with gouache, over the carnation; armour in pale grey wash worked over with dark grey and black, and with white heightening; the studs in gold; cravat in pale brown wash modelled in white; background a brown wash, hatched with darker colour and lightened slightly with grey gouache to right; on vellum put down on a leaf from a table-book.
Frame: Seventeenth-century oval gold locket with convex back, the sides chanelled and flaring out to the bezel, which holds the slightly convex glass by its rounded edges; the hanger of D-section, grooved down the middle and bifurcating into flat wires which turn back on themselves into single loops before beginning diminishing spirals of five turns; engraved on the back with a symmetrical arrangement of acanthus and other leaf ornament, issuing from an engraved triangle at the base of the hanger; inscribed inside with paint: 13 -4, (1) and packed out with cut-up playing cards.
Frame: Seventeenth-century oval gold locket with convex back, the sides chanelled and flaring out to the bezel, which holds the slightly convex glass by its rounded edges; the hanger of D-section, grooved down the middle and bifurcating into flat wires which turn back on themselves into single loops before beginning diminishing spirals of five turns; engraved on the back with a symmetrical arrangement of acanthus and other leaf ornament, issuing from an engraved triangle at the base of the hanger; inscribed inside with paint: 13 -4, (1) and packed out with cut-up playing cards.
Object details
Categories | |
Object type | |
Title | An Unknown Man (generic title) |
Materials and techniques | Watercolour on vellum put down on a leaf from a table-book |
Brief description | Portrait miniature of an unknown man, watercolour on vellum, painted by Nicholas Dixon, ca.1690. |
Physical description | Portrait of a man, turned slightly to right, looking to front and wearing armour and a neckcloth of patterned. Features strongly hatched in long strokes of brown and sanguine, with dark blue for the eyes and touches of white for the highlights, on a very pale carnation ground; hair in brown wash hatched with darker colour and heightened with gouache, over the carnation; armour in pale grey wash worked over with dark grey and black, and with white heightening; the studs in gold; cravat in pale brown wash modelled in white; background a brown wash, hatched with darker colour and lightened slightly with grey gouache to right; on vellum put down on a leaf from a table-book. Frame: Seventeenth-century oval gold locket with convex back, the sides chanelled and flaring out to the bezel, which holds the slightly convex glass by its rounded edges; the hanger of D-section, grooved down the middle and bifurcating into flat wires which turn back on themselves into single loops before beginning diminishing spirals of five turns; engraved on the back with a symmetrical arrangement of acanthus and other leaf ornament, issuing from an engraved triangle at the base of the hanger; inscribed inside with paint: 13 -4, (1) and packed out with cut-up playing cards. |
Dimensions |
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Content description | Portrait of a man wearing armour and a neckcloth of patterned lace. |
Styles | |
Marks and inscriptions | 'ND' (Signed at lower right) |
Credit line | Bequeathed by Miss Grace Valentine Stephenson as part of the R. H. Stephenson Bequest |
Object history | Provenance: R H Stephenson; given by his daughter Grace Valentine Stephenson in accordance with her father's wishes, February 1928. |
Subjects depicted | |
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.24-1929 |
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Record created | June 30, 2009 |
Record URL |
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