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Unknown Man, formerly called Richard Cromwell

Portrait Miniature
1647 (painted)
Artist/Maker
Cooper, Samuel (artist)
Place of origin
England (made)

Portrait, head and shoulders, to front and wearing armour. Features in free, wiry hatches of sanguine and brown, shadowed with blue-grey, over a thick creamy carnation; the hair in pale brown wash, lined and hatched in darker colour; the armour in grey wash, hatched and heightened with gouache; touches of gold in the armour and a narrow gilt band in the margin; background a pale blue wash, very slightly hatched to produce a shading behind the head; on vellum put down on a leaf from a table-book.

Object details

Categories
Portraits
Paintings
Object type
Portrait miniature
TitleUnknown Man, formerly called Richard Cromwell (generic title)
Materials and techniques
Watercolour on vellum put down on a leaf from a table-book
Vellum
Watercolour
Painting
Brief description
Portrait miniature of an unknown man, formerly called Richard Cromwell, watercolour on vellum, painted by Samuel Cooper, 1647.
Physical description
Portrait, head and shoulders, to front and wearing armour. Features in free, wiry hatches of sanguine and brown, shadowed with blue-grey, over a thick creamy carnation; the hair in pale brown wash, lined and hatched in darker colour; the armour in grey wash, hatched and heightened with gouache; touches of gold in the armour and a narrow gilt band in the margin; background a pale blue wash, very slightly hatched to produce a shading behind the head; on vellum put down on a leaf from a table-book.
Dimensions
  • Height: 48mm
  • Width: 39mm
Dimensions taken from John Murdoch Seventeenth-century English Miniatures in the collection of the Victoria and Albert Museum. London: The Stationery Office, 1997.
Styles
Stuart
English School
Marks and inscriptions
  • 'S.C. / 1647' (Signed in gold, centre right)
  • '[Wed]nesday morn[ing]' (Inscribed on the back, probably by the artist, in brown wash, the inscription truncated when the card was trimmed for setting; compare inscription on Cat. No. 90, the format of which is the original large rectangle.)
Credit line
Given by Mrs Emma Joseph
Object history
Provenance: Probably by 1865, Edward Cheney; his sale, Christie's 29 April 1885, lot 311, bt Davis (101 gns, in a blue enamel case); S S Joseph; Mrs Emma Joseph, by whom presented to the Museum, May 1941.
Subjects depicted
Man
Armour
Bibliographic references
  • Murdoch, John. Seventeenth-century English Miniatures in the collection of the Victoria and Albert Museum. London: The Stationery Office, 1997.
  • Victoria and Albert Museum, Department of Engraving, Illustration and Design and Department of Paintings, Accessions 1941, London: HMSO, 1954.
  • Catalogue of the Special Exhibition of Portrait Miniatures on Loan at the South Kensington Museum, London, Whittingham & Wilkins, 1865 no. 458
Collection
Prints, Drawings & Paintings Collection
Accession number
P.20-1941

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Record createdJuly 3, 2003
Record URL
https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O81942/unknown-man-formerly-called-richard-portrait-miniature-cooper-samuel/
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