James Stuart, Duke of Richmond and Lennox (1612-1655) c.1635
Watercolour on vellum laid on card | 7.2 x 5.4 cm (support, canvas/panel/stretcher external) | RCIN 420103
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This miniature by John Hoskins is one of his most accomplished works and shows the mature artist working in his most confident manner. Hoskins adopts some of the best traits of earlier miniaturists like Isaac Oliver, such as the heavily stippled, individually rendered strands of hair, and adds his own, distinctive and slightly poetic stamp with a luminous cloud-filled sky background and distant landscape beyond to the left. Although his mature style is distinctive, Hoskins's work has on occasion been confused with that of his contemporary, Peter Oliver (1594?-1647), but a signed and dated version of this miniature (Sothebys, London, 30 June 1980, lot 81) establishes beyond doubt that this is a work by Hoskins himself. A replica, unsigned but also by Hoskins, is in the Victoria and Albert Museum (P.24-1942). James Stuart, 4th Duke of Lennox, created Duke of Richmond (1641). He was a cousin of Charles I and a loyal follower of the Royalist cause.
Provenance
Probably Lord George Stuart (1618-42), seigneur d'Aubigny; not recorded in the collection of Charles I, but amongst the works of art returned to the Royal Collection for Charles II by Col. Hawley.
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Creator(s)
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Medium and techniques
Watercolour on vellum laid on card
Measurements
7.2 x 5.4 cm (support, canvas/panel/stretcher external)
8.7 x 6.9 cm (frame, external)
Category
Object type(s)
Other number(s)
Reynolds 1999 : Reynolds, G., 1999. The Sixteenth & Seventeenth Century Miniatures in the Collection of Her Majesty the Queen, London – Reynolds 1999 86Cust 1910 : Cust, L., 1910. Windsor Castle: Portrait Miniatures, London – Cust 1910 II/129