Thomas Flatman, Portrait of a Man, ca. 1660

Chicago:

Aimee Marcereau DeGalan, “Thomas Flatman, Portrait of a Man, ca. 1660,” catalogue entry in Aimee Marcereau DeGalan, Blythe Sobol, and Maggie Keenan, The Starr Collection of Portrait Miniatures, 1500–1850: The Collections of the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, vol. 2, ed. Aimee Marcereau DeGalan (Kansas City, MO: Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, 2024), https://doi.org/10.37764/8322.5.1216.

MLA:

Marcereau DeGalan, Aimee. “Thomas Flatman, Portrait of a Man, ca. 1660,” catalogue entry. Aimee Marcereau DeGalan, Blythe Sobol, and Maggie Keenan. The Starr Collection of Portrait Miniatures, 1500–1850: The Collections of the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, edited by Aimee Marcereau DeGalan, vol. 2, Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, 2024. doi: 10.37764/8322.5.1216.

See the artist’s biography in volume 4.

This portrait presents a young man in black scholars’ robes wearing a long brown wig in a style that points to the 1660s. He wears a white lawn collar adorned with lace trim. Flatman portrays the subject with poised stateliness, positioning him in the foreground between a pillar on the left and an open sky background on the right. Borrowing a subdued color palette from Samuel Cooper (English, ca. 1608–1672), Flatman’s distinctive technique, characterized by precise, graphic brushwork, is evident in the depiction of the sitter’s wig curls. The effect is a sense of static formality that imparts a sober yet unpretentious quality, a common thread in many of his portraits.

While some scholars consider Flatman’s technique of modeling facial features to be “scratchy” in comparison with Cooper’s more fluid style, attributing it to his use of fine brushes,¹ others suggest that this was a deliberate choice to distinguish himself from Cooper.² Flatman employed a gouache technique that was similar to Cooper’s, and both artists freely hatched their sitters’ facial features. This approach contrasts with the meticulous treatment of the sitter’s clothing and background, which is rendered with smooth precision.

Flatman successfully balanced his career as a lawyer with his pursuits as a poet, pamphleteer, and member of the Royal Society. Despite his divided attentions, Flatman’s miniature paintings have been celebrated as among the finest created in the seventeenth century, and Flatman has been hailed as a natural successor to Cooper.

Notes

1. As suggested by Jim Murrell, “The Craft of the Miniaturist,” in John Murdoch, Jim Murrell, Patrick J. Noon, and Roy Strong, The English Miniature (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1981), 15. For a larger discussion of Flatman’s technique compared to Cooper’s, see Aimee Marcereau DeGalan, “Thomas Flatman, Portrait of a Man in Armor, 1661,” catalogue entry in Aimee Marcereau DeGalan, Blythe Sobol, and Maggie Keenan, The Starr Collection of Portrait Miniatures, 1500–1850: The Collections of the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, ed. Aimee Marcereau DeGalan (Kansas City, MO: Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, 2024), https://doi.org/10.37764/8322.5.1218.

2. As noted by Katherine Coombs in The Portrait Miniature in England (London: V&A Publications, 2005), 71.

Possibly the Dukes of Bolton, by descent [1];

With S. J. Phillips, London, by May 1932–at least 1935 [2];

Mr. John W. (1905–2000) and Mrs. Martha Jane (1906–2011) Starr, Kansas City, MO, by 1958;

Their gift to The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, MO, 1958.

Notes

[1] S. J. Phillips advertised the miniature as, “From the Earl of Bolton’s Collection,” but the title “Earl of Bolton” does not exist, and the title “Duke of Bolton” became extinct when Harry Powlett, 6th Duke of Bolton (1719/20–1794) died. There are, however, Baron Boltons, including William Thomas Orde-Powlett, 4th Baron Bolton (1845–1922), William George Algar Orde-Powlett, 5th Baron Bolton (1869–1944), and Nigel Amyas Orde-Powlett, 6th Baron Bolton (1900–1963).

For a similar provenance, see a miniature by Samuel Cooper, Portrait of a Lady Traditionally Identified as Mary Paulet, Marchioness of Winchester, ca. 1660, which sold at The Pohl-Ströher Collection of Portrait Miniatures, Part III, Sotheby’s, London, December 5, 2019, lot 129. In the catalogue, the provenance is listed as “The Earls of Bolton, by repute; with S. J. Phillips, London, by 1932.”

[2] S. J. Phillips advertised the Cooper mentioned in [1] and the Nelson-Atkins Flatman in 1932 as, “Miniature of the Duchess of Bolton, by S. Cooper, signed. Miniature of Young Man, by T. Flatman, signed. From the Earl of Bolton’s Collection. Specimens from my Collection of XVII Century English Miniatures.” See Burlington Magazine for Connoisseurs 60, no. 350 (May 1932): xvi, (repro.). Phillips also advertised the two miniatures in Art News 33, no. 33 (May 18, 1935).

Art Treasures Exhibition 1932, Christie, Manson, and Woods, London, October 12–November 5, 1932, no. 394, as Gentleman.

The Starr Foundation Collection of Miniatures, The Royal Ontario Museum, Toronto, December 8, 1972–January 14, 1973, no cat., no. 14, as Unknown Man.

Samuel Cooper and His Contemporaries, National Portrait Gallery, London, February 6–May 12, 1974, no. 180, as Portrait of an Unknown Man.

Advertisement, Burlington Magazine for Connoisseurs 60, no. 350 (May 1932): xvi, (repro.), as Miniature of Young Man.

Advertisement, Art News 33, no. 33 (May 18, 1935): 5, (repro.), as Miniature of a Young Man.

Martha Jane and John W. Starr, “Collecting Portrait Miniatures,” Antiques 80, no. 5 (November 1961): 439, (repro.), as Portrait of a Man.

Ross E. Taggart, The Starr Collection of Miniatures in the William Rockhill Nelson Gallery (Kansas City, MO: Nelson Gallery-Atkins Museum, 1971), no. 14, p. 12, (repro.), as Unknown Man.

Daphne Foskett, ed., Samuel Cooper and His Contemporaries, exh. cat. (London: H.M. Stationery Office and National Portrait Gallery, 1974), 95, (repro.), as Portrait of an Unknown Man.