Portrait miniature of Edward Sackville, 4th Earl of Dorset, watercolour on vellum, by John Hoskins, ca.1635.

Portrait, head and shoulders, turned slightly to right and looking to front; wearing a blue sash and high collar; drapery in the background. Features in firm broad hatches of brown and sanguine with some blue shadow over a pale creamy carnation ground; the hair in pale brown wash, worked over with long strokes in darker colour and the lights in gouache; collar in opaque white over a pale brown wash and the doublet in black with gold heightening; the ribbon washed in blue with white heightening; background landscape washed and hatched in gouache; the curtain a flooded transparent crimson, washed wet-in-wet; a gold marginal strip; on vellum put down on pasteboard.

Frame: Nineteenth-century (c. 1862) copper-gilt locket, convex back and straight sides with a central torus moulding, the sides drawn up into a bezel which holds the convex glass; the hanger of cosse de pois type with a projection at each shoulder and a small bead on top, between two separate spirals of flat wire, diminishing in four turns. Cf Cat. No. 29.

Bequeathed by George Salting

Provenance: By 1862 in the possession of Thomas Whitehead the dealer, who recorded 'at the back of the old ebony frame of this fine minature [ sic] by I Hoskins - was as follows This is the Picture of the Earl of Dorset who presented it to Richard Young "his Lordships Attorney" of the Temple London Gent. in token of the regard he retained for him on account of his meritorious Service and integrity - The above Richard Young was the Grandfather of Mrs Mary Hall of Sandgate Copied by Thos M Whitehead of Duke St St Iames's London Feby 4 1862-'; presumably sold by Whitehead to Charles F Huth; his sale, Christie's 10 July 1895, lot 5, bt Provenance: Hodgkin, £160, and by him sold to George Salting, £210; bequeathed by Salting to the Museum, 1910.

Although ‘IH’ is the authentic signature of John Hoskins, this miniature may not be by him. Instead, it is possibly an early work by Samuel Cooper (1608?–1672). Cooper was the nephew of Hoskins, and he was trained in miniature painting by his uncle. He must have worked in Hoskins' studio. He did not set up independently in London until 1642, when he was probably in his early thirties.

P.104-1910