Circle of Isaac Oliver, Portrait of a Man, ca. 1600

Chicago:

Blythe Sobol, “Circle of Isaac Oliver, Portrait of a Man, ca. 1600,” 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/10.37764/8322.5.1110.

MLA:

Sobol, Blythe. “Circle of Isaac Oliver, Portrait of a Man, ca. 1600,” 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: 10.37764/8322.5.1110.

The condition of this miniature makes it difficult to determine who may have painted it. It was purchased by John W. and Martha Jane Starr as a work by the French-born miniaturist Isaac Oliver,¹ who spent most of his career in Britain.² However, it seems flat in comparison to Oliver’s continental style of modeling, which uses strong shadowing to produce dimension through rich contrasts of light and dark. It is possible, however, that original details have been scraped away over time, as the surface of the paint was abraded, making it hard to measure the extent of the losses. Along with abrasions throughout, there are visible scratches and losses in the hair and extensive fading, particularly in the lips and ears.³ Still, the lace ruff is beautifully executed, and the hairs in the man’s goatee and mustache are finely painted with delicate upward strokes. Until further analysis is conducted, we suggest that this work was painted by an associate of Isaac Oliver or someone who was familiar with his work.­­⁴

This style of blue background was first used by miniaturists of the Tudor court, like Hans Holbein (German, 1497/1498–1543) and Nicholas Hilliard (ca. 1547–1619), who trained Oliver in the art of limning. It was commonly used in English miniatures until about 1615, when a more naturalistic red curtain became fashionable (for example, see John Hoskins the Elder, Portrait of a Man, Possibly Robert Carr, 1st Earl of Somerset, ca. 1622). The blue background, along with the sitter’s modestly proportioned ruff, suggest a possible date of about 1600.

The sitter’s fine yet sober attire, and his ability to commission a portrait miniature, suggests he may have been a prosperous city merchant. The crisply starched double-layered ruff, trimmed with delicate and costly imported point lace, was likely made of linen. A similar example is in the collection of the Victoria and Albert Museum (London).⁵

The enameled gold case in bright robin’s-egg blue dates to the period, though it is not possible to confirm that the portrait and the case were originally paired together.⁶ All too often, later swaps and additions of cases and their inhabitants were made to prepare miniatures for sale.

Notes

1. “A very fine miniature of a Man by Isaac Oliver, nearly full face, with dark hair, long and slightly upswept moustache and goatee beard, the features well modeled, wearing a fine white ruff and black tunic against a blue background, in original gold and blue enamel frame, oval, 1 1/2 in. (See Illustration).” See Catalogue of Fine Portrait Miniatures, Watches, Gold Boxes, and Objects of Vertu (London: Sotheby’s, February 9, 1956), lot 62.

2. An excellent recent source on Oliver is Catharine MacLeod et al., Elizabethan Treasures: Miniatures by Hilliard and Oliver (London: National Portrait Gallery, 2019), 11–39.

3. According to visiting conservator Carol Aiken, 2017, notes in NAMA curatorial files.

4. Great strides are being made in the technical analysis of Isaac Oliver’s work at the University of Cambridge. The team’s research continues, but recent findings are published in Christine Slottved Kimbriel and Paola Ricciardi, “Secrets of a Silent Miniaturist: Findings from a Technical Study of Miniatures Attributed to Isaac Oliver,” British Art Studies 17 (September 2020), https://doi.org/10.17658/issn.2058-5462/issue-17/kimbrielricciardi.

5. Ruff Edging, ca. 1600–20, needle lace worked in linen thread, 78 x 4 1/4 in. (203 x 11.5 cm), Victoria and Albert Museum, London, T.14-1965, https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O318885/ruff-edging-unknown. A modern piece of linen was added to the lace edging during reconstruction to approximate its original form as a ruff.

6. According to visiting conservator Carol Aiken, 2017, NAMA curatorial files.

Unknown owner, by 1956;

His sale, Fine Portrait Miniatures, Watches, Gold Boxes, and Objects of Vertu, Sotheby’s, London, February 9, 1956, lot 62, as A Man [1];

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] “A Gentleman” sold lots 55–63. The miniature is described in the catalogue as: “A very fine miniature of a man by Isaac Oliver, nearly full face, with dark hair, long and slightly upswept mustache and goatee beard, the features well modeled, wearing a fine white ruff and black tunic against a blue background, in original gold and pale blue enamel frame, oval, 1 1/2 in.” The miniature is illustrated on the facing page. The annotated catalogue for this sale is located at the University of Missouri-Kansas City, Miller Nichols Library. The annotations are most likely by Mr. or Mrs. Starr. Lot 62 has a question mark annotated next to it.

Catalogue of Fine Portrait Miniatures, Watches, Gold Boxes, and Objects of Vertu (London: Sotheby’s, February 9, 1956), lot 62.

Ross E. Taggart, ed., Handbook of the Collections in the William Rockhill Nelson Gallery of Art and Mary Atkins Museum of Fine Arts, 4th ed. (Kansas City, MO: William Rockhill Nelson Gallery of Art and Mary Atkins Museum of Fine Arts, 1959), 265.

Ross E. Taggart, The Starr Collection of Miniatures in the William Rockhill Nelson Gallery (Kansas City, MO: Nelson Gallery-Atkins Museum, 1971), no. 7, p. 11, (repro.), as Unknown Man.