Chats on Old Miniatures

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rive at the middle of the sixteenth century, when the series of English miniature painters, properly so called, may be sa

ard Hilliard, High Sheriff of his county in the year 1560. His mother was a daughter of John Wall, goldsmith, of London, a circumstance which there can be little

h, "to make pictures of her body and person in small compass in limning only." According to Pilkington, he owed his introduction to the Virgin Queen to the interest of Sir Walter Raleigh, but I have not met with any corroboration of this statement. It is also commonly said that Hilliard was enjoined to paint he

medals in gold, in respect of his extraordinary skill in drawing, graving, and imprinting, &c., we have granted unto him our special licence for twelve years, to invent, ma

th biographical details. It must, however, be observed that Hilliard had an only son, Lawrence, who

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privilege was a source of emolument to the Hilliard family (by the way, Lawrence had several children), and gave them control over the engravers and p

in the Fields. He left to his sister, Ann Avery, ￡20 out of the ￡30 due to him as

ty years of age, and was probably pretty fully employed during the greater part of his career,

t Windsor. A still larger collection was exhibited at the Loan Collection at Kensington in 1865, and I have, at one time or another, examin

he neatness of his model (Holbein), he was far from attaining that nature and force which that great master impressed on his most minute works. Hilliard," he continues, "arrived at no strength of colouring; his faces are pale and void of

rry Hill, and his statement that the painter "arrived at no strength of colouring," but before we accept the conclusion that his portraits always

s of which robs them of all beauty. The more perfect condition of the jewels and ornaments, with which the figures in Hilliard's pictures are so profusely adorned, is not conclusive, owing to the opaque nature of the colours and the quantity of gold he wa

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express in words. Indeed, I might go farther, and say that a large proportion of people who look upon works of art never re

painters. He is certainly inferior in finish and beauty to the Olivers, and his heads are even more deficient in the wonderful rendering of character and the masterly executio

ed in 1598, we are told that "limning was much used in former times in church books, as also in drawing by life in small models of late years by some of o

Mary Sidney, Countess of Pembroke-an extremely interesting miniature, by the way, which came from Penshurst. This lady was the daughter of Sir Henry Sidney, and married Henry, second Earl of Pembroke. It

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autiful miniature by Isaac Oliver, in the Royal Collection, which adorns this volume (see p. 295). From Penshurst, too, came the profile of Elizabeth given in this book. I refer to it here because it

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ruff, a vaster farthingale, and a bushel of pearls, are the features by which every one knows them at once. In this connection it may be observed there is another portrait of Queen Elizabeth, spoken of by Walpole as one of Hilliard's most capital performanc

Court goldsmith; the portraits are those of Henry VII., Henry VIII., Jane Seymour, and Edward VI. The latter Van der Doort describes as "meanly done," "upon a round card." This remarkable example of goldsmith's work has on one side the roses of York and Lancaster and on the other a representation of the Battle of Bosworth Field

r times, and of Elizabeth's Court in particular. Thus, in the Duke of Buccleuch's Collection is a portrait, on vellum, of Ed

on. She was the wife of Hilliard, and was painted by him in her twenty-second year, 1578. The picture is charming from the vivacity of the features and its delicate execution. It is

hus inscribed: "Comes linoz ano Dni 1560 ?tatis Su? 18." I give this description as it

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her marriage, from whom it descended to her grandson, the second and last Earl of Middleton, and thence to the present possessor. Of course, it is quite possible that this is the work of Hilliard, although most improbable

Scottish Solomon was sold at Christie's for a very large sum. Of the courtiers of Elizabeth we have a number of well-known personages, Essex and Dudley, for example; of Drake when forty-two, in Lord Derby's Collection; and a portrait of G

Mrs. Holland, one of Elizabeth's Maids of Honour; Lord Keeper Coventry; Lady Hunsdon; and a