Portrait miniature

A portrait miniature is a miniature portrait painting, usually executed in gouache or watercolor.

England, 18th and 19th centuries

The 18th century produced a great number of miniature painters, of whom Richard Cosway (1742–1821) is the most famous. His works are of great beauty, and executed with a dash and brilliance which no other artist equalled. His best work was done about 1799. His portraits are generally on ivory, although occasionally he worked on paper or vellum, and he produced a great many full-length pencil drawings on paper, in which he slightly tinted the faces and hands, and these he called "stayned drawings". Cosway's finest miniatures are signed on the back; there is but one genuine signed on the face; very few bear even his initials on. the front.

Related Topics:
18th century - Richard Cosway - 1742 - 1821 - Ivory

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George Engleheart (1750–1829) painted 4,900 miniatures, and his work is stronger and more impressive than that of Cosway; it is often signed E or G.E. Andrew Plimer (1763–1837) was a pupil of Cosway, and both he and his brother Nathaniel Plimer produced some lovely portraits. The brightness of the eyes, wiriness of the hair, exuberance of color, combined with forced chiaroscuro and often very inaccurate drawing, are characteristics of Andrew Plimer's work. John Smart (1741&nash;1811) was in some respects the greatest of the 18th century miniaturists. His work excelled in refinement, power and delicacy; its silky texture and elaborate finish, and the artists love for a brown background, distinguish it. Other notable painters were Ozias Humphry (1742&nadsh;1810), Samuel Shelley (c. 1750–1808), whose best pictures are groups of two or more persons, William Wood, a Suffolk artist (1768–1808), Henry Edridge (1769–1821), Richard Crosse, John Bogle, and Edward Dayes.

Related Topics:
George Engleheart - 1750 - 1829 - Andrew Plimer - 1763 - 1837 - Nathaniel Plimer - Chiaroscuro - John Smart - 1741 - 1811 - Ozias Humphry - 1742 - 1810 - Samuel Shelley - 1808 - William Wood - Suffolk - 1768 - Henry Edridge - 1769 - 1821 - Richard Crosse - John Bogle - Edward Dayes

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In the 19th century John Cox Dillman Engleheart (1784-1862), nephew of George; Andrew Robertson (1777–1845), George Beaumont, William Behnes, Thomas Frank Heaphy and Anne Mee must be mentioned. Sir Thomas Lawrence painted a few miniatures, and Henry Raeburn some in his early days; but the art maybe said to have died out with Sir William Ross, although some works by Sir Edwin Henry Landseer in this form are in existence, some small paintings of flowers by George Lance, and one portrait by Dante Gabriel Rossetti. Towards the end of the 19th century came a revival of miniature painting, but without producing any masters of the same calibre. Alyn Williams amongst Englishmen, Johann Waldemar von Rehling-Quistgaard, the talented Danish miniature painter, and Bess Norris, an Australian artist, deserve mention.

Related Topics:
19th century - John Cox Dillman Engleheart - Andrew Robertson - 1777 - 1845 - George Beaumont - William Behnes - Thomas Frank Heaphy - Anne Mee - Thomas Lawrence - Henry Raeburn - William Ross - Edwin Henry Landseer - George Lance - Dante Gabriel Rossetti - Alyn Williams - Johann Waldemar von Rehling-Quistgaard - Bess Norris

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