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Image of Gallery in South Kensington
Request to view at the Prints & Drawings Study Room, level F , Case RMC, Shelf 1, Box H

An Unknown Man

Portrait Miniature
1660-1670 (painted)
Artist/Maker
Place of origin

Portrait of a man, head and shoulders, looking to front, his hair long and wearing a high collar and armour. Features finely hatched in brown and sanguine, with blue-grey for the shadows and some white heightening, blended into a pale carnation ground; hair in brown wash, hatched and lined with darker colour and with grey-brown for the lights, only partly over the carnation; collar in white and grey-blue over pale grey wash; armour in grey wash hatched over with darker colour and with white for the lights and gold for the studs; sky in washes of grey-blue and white; almost transparent to the left; on vellum put down on pasteboard.

Frame: Probably eighteenth-century oval locket; the convex back of copper-gilt; the sides of gold with two narrow channels separated by a thread moulding, holding the back and the convex glass in bezels; the hanger engraved with a thread line and pivoted transversely by a steel screw (possibly a later addition) on to a small drilled button soldered to the top. The inside packed out with an oval brass plate and cut playing cards. 'The locket is not of the conventional miniature type, but seems to be adapted from a watch-case pattern: the back which is removable rather than the front, and the hanger, of bow and pendant type, are characteristic of watch-making practice c.1750.


Object details

Categories
Object type
TitleAn Unknown Man (generic title)
Materials and techniques
Watercolour on vellum put down on pasteboard
Brief description
Portrait miniature of an unknown man, watercolour on vellum, painted by Nicholas Dixon, 1660-1670.
Physical description
Portrait of a man, head and shoulders, looking to front, his hair long and wearing a high collar and armour. Features finely hatched in brown and sanguine, with blue-grey for the shadows and some white heightening, blended into a pale carnation ground; hair in brown wash, hatched and lined with darker colour and with grey-brown for the lights, only partly over the carnation; collar in white and grey-blue over pale grey wash; armour in grey wash hatched over with darker colour and with white for the lights and gold for the studs; sky in washes of grey-blue and white; almost transparent to the left; on vellum put down on pasteboard.

Frame: Probably eighteenth-century oval locket; the convex back of copper-gilt; the sides of gold with two narrow channels separated by a thread moulding, holding the back and the convex glass in bezels; the hanger engraved with a thread line and pivoted transversely by a steel screw (possibly a later addition) on to a small drilled button soldered to the top. The inside packed out with an oval brass plate and cut playing cards. 'The locket is not of the conventional miniature type, but seems to be adapted from a watch-case pattern: the back which is removable rather than the front, and the hanger, of bow and pendant type, are characteristic of watch-making practice c.1750.
Dimensions
  • Height: 50mm
  • Width: 41.5mm
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 man wearing a high collar and armour.
Styles
Credit line
Given by Mrs A Edwards and Mrs B J Day
Object history
Provenance: From the collection of Mrs Clement Williams; presented to the Museum by her daughters Mrs A Edwards and Mrs BJ Day, June 1977.
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.23-1977

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Record createdJuly 3, 2003
Record URL
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