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Mrs Pru Phillips

Portrait Miniature
ca.1690 (painted)
Artist/Maker
Place of origin

Portrait of a woman, half-length, looking to front, the head turned slighlty to left, a ringlet of hair on her left shoulder; oval on a rectangular sheet. Features in very soft blended strokes of brown with blue shadowing, with pink gouache around the nostrils, black and blue with white lights for the eyes, and red for the lips, on a thick creamy carnation ground; hair in very pale brown strokes with grey gouache and long darker brown lining; dress indicated by a red wash, with grey-blue for a mantle and impasted white over pale brown wash for the chemise; background diagonally hatched in browns and ochres over a pale brown wash; on vellum put down on a leaf from a table-book.

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read Portrait miniatures at the V&A In 1857, the year the new South Kensington Museum (now the V&A) opened to the public, the museum acquired its first portrait miniature – an image of Queen Elizabeth I by Nicholas Hilliard. The miniature, housed in an enamelled gold locket with a jewelled cover, is a rare survival as most E...

Object details

Categories
Object type
TitleMrs Pru Phillips (generic title)
Materials and techniques
Watercolour on vellum put down on a leaf from a table-book
Brief description
Portrait miniature of Mrs Pru Phillips, watercolour on vellum by Susannah-Penelope Rosse, ca.1690.
Physical description
Portrait of a woman, half-length, looking to front, the head turned slighlty to left, a ringlet of hair on her left shoulder; oval on a rectangular sheet. Features in very soft blended strokes of brown with blue shadowing, with pink gouache around the nostrils, black and blue with white lights for the eyes, and red for the lips, on a thick creamy carnation ground; hair in very pale brown strokes with grey gouache and long darker brown lining; dress indicated by a red wash, with grey-blue for a mantle and impasted white over pale brown wash for the chemise; background diagonally hatched in browns and ochres over a pale brown wash; on vellum put down on a leaf from a table-book.
Dimensions
  • Sheet height: 93mm
  • Sheet width: 70mm
  • Oval height: 75mm
  • Oval width: 59mm
Dimensions taken from John Murdoch Seventeenth-century English Miniatures in the collection of the Victoria and Albert Museum. London: The Stationery Office, 1997.
Content description
Portrait of a woman, facing to front, a ringlet of hair about her right shoulder.
Styles
Marks and inscriptions
'Mrs Pru Fillips' (Inscribed on the back, in graphite)
Object history
Provenance: Presumably acquired from Cooper's estate by the Rosses, or perhaps by Priestman (see Rosse, Cat. No. 143) and perhaps in the Michael Rosse sale, 2 April 1723; eventually purchased by Edwin [Durning] Lawrence before 1862, and sold by him to the Museum for £525 in 1892.
Subjects depicted
Bibliographic reference
John Murdoch, Seventeenth-century English Miniatures in the Collection of the Victoria & Albert Museum, London: The Stationery Office in association with the Victoria & Albert Museum, 1997.
Collection
Accession number
445-1892

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Record createdJuly 1, 2009
Record URL
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