Portrait of a Woman
Framed: 2 3/8 × 1 9/16 × 3/16 inches (6.03 × 3.97 × 0.48 cm)
Portrait miniatures are intimate tokens of love, loss, allegiance, and affection exchanged between intimates. The earliest examples were painted in watercolor on translucent vellum (animal skin). The vellum was then coated on both sides with a smooth preparation suitable for painting upon then stuck to the plain side of a stiff card for added support. Miniature cases were made by jewelers and often as decorative as the portraits.
Nicholas Hilliard ranks among the most prominent miniature painters during the Elizabethan era (1558-1603). Following Queen Elizabeth I's order that no hint of shadow should cloud the royal face, many artists depicted her and other patrons in a two-dimensional style. Originally trained as a goldsmith, Hilliard introduced an innovative technique for painting pearls by applying a raised bead of white lead paint topped by a drop of polished silver. Silver tarnishes with age, and these areas now appear black.
Hilliard's innovative techniques influenced generations of miniaturists in England.
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.
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), 264, as Portrait of a Lady.
Ross E. Taggart, The Starr Collection of Miniatures in the William Rockhill Nelson Gallery (Kansas City, MO: Nelson Gallery-Atkins Museum, 1971), no. 4, p. 10, (repro.), as Unknown Lady.
