Portrait of George Clifford, Third Earl of Cumberland
Sight: 2 11/16 × 2 3/16 inches (6.83 × 5.56 cm)
Masterworks in Miniature, The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, MO, April 30-November 11, 2007.
Renaissance to Restoration, The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, MO, April 3-August 6, 2019-2020.
The Tudors: Art and Majesty in Renaissance England, Fine Art Museums of San Francisco, San Francisco, CA, June 24-September 24, 2023.
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.
Probably commissioned by the sitter, George Clifford, 3rd Earl of Cumberland (1558–1605), Clifford Castle, Herefordshire, about 1587 [1];
Possibly inherited, erroneously, by his brother, Francis Clifford, 4th Earl of Cumberland (1559–1641) [2];
Possibly by descent, erroneously, to his son, Henry Clifford, 5th Earl of Cumberland (1591/2–1643);
Probably inherited by George Clifford’s daughter, Lady Anne Clifford, 14th Baroness de Clifford (1590–1676), Clifford Castle, Herefordshire, by 1643 [3];
Probably given to her daughter Lady Isabella Sackville (1622–1661), Castle Ashby House, Northamptonshire, by 1661;
Inherited by her husband James Compton, 3rd Earl of Northampton (1622–1681), Castle Ashby House, Northamptonshire, 1661–1681;
By descent to his son, George Compton, 4th Earl of Northampton (1664–1727), Castle Ashby House, Northamptonshire, 1681–1727;
By descent to his daughter Lady Anne Compton, Lady Rushout (d. 1747), Castle Ashby House, Northamptonshire, 1727–1747;
Inherited by her husband, Sir John Rushout, 4th Baronet (1685–1775), Northwick Park, Gloucestershire, 1747–1775;
By descent to their son John Rushout, 1st Baron Northwick (1738–1800), Northwick Park, Gloucestershire, 1775–1800;
By descent to his son John Rushout, 2nd Baron Northwick (1770–1859), Northwick Park, Gloucestershire, 1800–1859;
Purchased at his posthumous sale, The Late Lord Northwick’s Extensive and Magnificent Collection of Ancient and Modern Pictures, Cabinet of Miniatures and Enamels, and Other Choice Works of Art . . . Which will be Sold by Auction by Mr. Phillips, Thirlestane House, Cheltenham, August 5, 1859, lot 779, by Henry Farrer (1798–1866), London, 1859 [4];
Purchased from Henry Farrer by Thomas Whitehead (1825–1897), London, about 1859–1862 [5];
Purchased from Thomas Whitehead by Charles Sotheby (1820–1887), 1862–1887 [6];
Inherited by his half-brother Major General Frederick Edward Sotheby (1837–1909), 1887–1909 [7];
Inherited by his wife Edith Sotheby (d. 1929), Ecton Hall, Northamptonshire, 1909–1929 [8];
Inherited by the cousin of Major Sotheby, Lieutenant-Colonel Herbert George Sotheby (1871–1954), 1929–1954;
By descent to his nephew, Commander Nigel Walter Adeane Sotheby (1896–1980), 1954–1955;
Purchased at his sale, The Sotheby Heirlooms, Sotheby’s, London, October 11, 1955, lot 74, as George Clifford, Third Earl of Cumberland, by John W. (1905–2000) and Martha Jane (1906–2011) Starr, Kansas City, MO, 1955–1958 [9];
Their gift to The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, MO, 1958.
Notes
[1] With thanks to Cara Nordengren for her assistance in compiling this provenance narrative.
[2] In direct conflict with the longstanding Clifford family entail, which specified that all Clifford estates should descend to the eldest heir, regardless of gender, George Clifford willed all of his lands and titles to his brother, Francis Clifford, rather than his sole surviving child, Lady Anne Clifford. The Clifford estates were subsequently inherited by Francis Clifford’s son, Henry, before being restored to Lady Anne Clifford after Henry’s death in 1643, following a prolonged legal fight.
[3] Lady Anne Clifford was Clifford’s daughter and sole surviving child. Her father having died when she was fifteen years old, Lady Anne did not immediately inherit Clifford’s vast estates. In direct conflict with the longstanding Clifford family entail, which specified that all Clifford estates should descend to the eldest heir, regardless of gender, George Clifford had willed all of his lands and titles to his brother, Francis Clifford. Anne was left only £15,000. With the aid of her mother and guardian Margaret (until Anne was of age to do so herself), Anne contested what she rightfully viewed as her inheritance beginning in 1606. In 1643, after four decades of herculean legal battles, Anne finally came into her full inheritance of the Clifford estates and dedicated the rest of her life to restoring her family castles and properties. It is unclear whether George Clifford’s miniature was part of her initial inheritance or if she did not receive it until she came into the full inheritance when her cousin Henry Clifford, the son of Francis Clifford, died in 1643. On Lady Anne and the formative impact of her fight for her inheritance on her patronage, see Alice T. Friedman, “Wife in the English Country House: Gender and the Meaning of Style in Early Modern England,” Women and Art in Early Modern Europe: Patrons, Collectors and Connoisseurs, ed. Cynthia Lawrence (University Park: Pennsylvania State University, 1997), 121–25.
[4] The miniature is described in lot 779 of the Northwick sale catalogue as follows: “George Clifford, Earl of Cumberland, in armour, richly decorated with gold, with the motto, ‘Fulmen aquasque fero.’” The Northwick sale is the earliest documentation we have of the miniature’s provenance, but its descent through members of Clifford’s extended family is based on extensive genealogical research.
[5] According to the Northwick sale catalogue, the Hilliard was purchased by a “Farrer” living at New Bond Street. Henry Farrer was a restorer and miniature painter who occasionally worked for Lord Northwick in the 1840s and 1850s. His address from 1856 to 1866 was 106 New Bond Street, London. It is likely that Farrer and Thomas Whitehead, the subsequent owner of this miniature, were acquainted; both made purchases at the Northwick sale. Jacob Simon, “Henry Farrer,” British Picture Restorers 1600–1950: F, 2009, https://www.npg.org.uk/collections/research/programmes/directory-of-british-picture-restorers/british-picture-restorers-1600-1950-f.
It is possible that Farrer purchased the miniature with the intent to resell it at a higher price—perhaps with Whitehead in mind—after restoring it.
[6] According to the 1955 Sotheby’s sale catalogue, the Hilliard was “purchased by Charles Sotheby from Whitehead in 1862.” According to John Murdoch, “In 1861, Charles Sotheby bought from the dealer Thomas Whitehead a Cooper, signed and dated 1653, for £30. In 1862 he exchanged it in part payment for the Hilliard of Earl of Cumberland, which Whitehead had bought at the Northwick Sale.” John Murdoch, Seventeenth-Century English Miniatures in the Collection of the Victoria and Albert Museum (London: H.M. Stationery Office in association with the Victoria and Albert Museum, 1997), 138.
[7] This miniature was exhibited at the Burlington Fine Arts Club in 1889; the catalogue states that the objects was “lent by Major-General Sotheby.” Exhibition of Portrait Miniatures (London: Burlington Fine Arts Club, 1889), 61. Major-General Sotheby inherited the estate of his half-brother, Charles Sotheby, in 1862.
[8] Major-General Sotheby willed his estate to his wife Edith Sotheby for her lifetime, after which it was to be inherited by his closest living male heir. Rodney Ingram, “The Manor of Ecton,” Ecton Village, https://www.ectonvillage.co.uk/village-history/ectons-past/ecton-hall/.
[9] Note that the Sotheby family that sold the Hilliard miniature in 1955 is of no relation to the auction house, Sotheby and Co.
Catalogue of the Late Lord Northwick’s Extensive and Magnificent Collection of Ancient and Modern Pictures, Cabinet of Miniatures and Enamels, and Other Choice Works of Art, Furniture, Plate, Wines, and Effects, at Thirlestane House, Cheltenham (Cheltenham: Mr. Phillips, August 5, 1859), 72.
South Kensington Museum, Catalogue of the Special Exhibition of Portrait Miniatures, exh. cat. (London: Whittingham and Wilkins, 1865), no. 2642.
Exhibition of Portrait Miniatures, exh. cat. (London: Burlington Fine Arts Club, 1889), no. 4, p. 61, as George Clifford, 3rd of Cumberland.
Exhibition of the Royal House of Tudor, exh. cat. (London: The New Gallery, 1890), no. 1112, p. 214.
Dudley Heath, Miniatures (New York: G.P. Putnam’s Sons, 1905), xv, 104, (repro.).
Dr. G. C. Williamson, George, Third Earl of Cumberland (1558–1605): His Life and His Voyages (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1920), p. 277, pl. XIX, (repro.), as George, Earl of Cumberland.
Exhibition of Old and Modern Miniatures, exh. cat. (Manchester: City of Manchester Art Gallery, 1926), no. 242, p. 32.
A Loan Exhibition Depicting the Reign of Queen Elizabeth, exh. cat. (London: Battley Brothers, 1933), no. 468, p. 65.
Royal Academy of Arts, Exhibition of British Art c. 1000–1860, exh. cat. (London: William Clowes and Sons, 1934), 333.
Graham Reynolds, Nicholas Hilliard and Isaac Oliver, exh. cat. (London: H.M. Stationery Office, 1947), no. 54, p. 31, (repro.).
The Sotheby Heirlooms Part I: Catalogue of the Celebrated Collection of Early English Portrait Miniatures, The Property of the Late Major-General Frederick Edward Sotheby, Ecton Hall, Northampton (London: Sotheby’s, October 11, 1955), 40–41, (repro.), as George Clifford, Third Earl of Cumberland.
“Miniatures from Ecton Hall,” The Times (London) (October 11, 1955): 16, (repro.).
“£35,412 for Ecton Miniatures,” The Times (London) (October 12, 1955): 8.
The Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin 15, no. 5 (January 1957): 120, (repro.), as George Clifford, Earl of Cumberland.
Bulletin (The Nelson Gallery and Atkins Museum) 1, no. 2 (December 1958): 15, (repro.), as George Clifford, Earl of Cumberland.
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), 135, 264, (repro.) as George Clifford, Earl of Cumberland.
Erna Auerbach, Nicholas Hilliard (Boston: Boston Book and Art Shop, 1961), 115, (repro.).
Martha Jane and John W. Starr, “Collecting Portrait Miniatures,” Antiques 80, no. 5 (November 1961): 438–39, (repro.).
Robert K. Sanford, “Starr Miniatures Displayed in Elegance,” Kansas City Star 84, no. 40 (October 27, 1963): 2E, as Portrait of George Clifford, Earl of Cumberland.
Daphne Foskett, British Portrait Miniatures: A History (London: Methuen, 1963), 44, (repro.), as George Clifford, 3rd Earl of Cumberland, K.G. (1558–1605).
The World of Shakespeare 1564–1616, exh. cat. (Detroit: Detroit Institute of Arts and Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, 1964), no. 29, pp. 32–33, (repro.).
Marilyn Stokstad, Renaissance Art Outside Italy (Dubuque: Wm. C. Brown, 1968), 89, as George Clifford, Earl of Cumberland.
Roy Strong, Tudor and Jacobean Portraits (London: H.M. Stationery Office, 1969), no. 101, pp. 1:57, 2:unpaginated, (repro.).
Ross E. Taggart, The Starr Collection of Miniatures in the William Rockhill Nelson Gallery (Kansas City, MO: Nelson Gallery-Atkins Museum, 1971), no. 3, p. 10, (repro. front cover), as George Clifford, Earl of Cumberland.
Graham Reynolds, Nicholas Hilliard and Isaac Oliver (London: H.M. Stationery Office, 1971), no. 55, unpaginated, (repro.).
Ross E. Taggart and George L. McKenna, eds., Handbook of the Collections in The William Rockhill Nelson Gallery of Art and Mary Atkins Museum of Fine Arts, Kansas City, Missouri, vol. 1, Art of the Occident, 5th ed. (Kansas City, MO: William Rockhill Nelson Gallery of Art and Mary Atkins Museum of Fine Arts, 1973), 147, (repro.), as George Clifford, Earl of Cumberland.
A Kind of Gentle Painting, exh. cat. (Edinburgh: Scottish Arts Council, 1975), no. 16, unpaginated, (repro.).
Lady Anne Clifford, 1590–1676, exh. cat. (Kendal: Abbot Hall Art Gallery, 1976), no. 3, p. 20, (repro.).
Roy Strong, Artists of the Tudor Court: The Portrait Miniature Rediscovered, 1520–1620, exh. cat. (London: Victoria and Albert Museum, 1983), no. 214, pp. 133–35, (repro.), as George Clifford, 3rd Earl of Cumberland.
Daphne Foskett, “Pictured in Little: The Portrait Miniature Rediscovered, 1520–1620” Country Life (July 21, 1983): 139.
“Proud Northern Lady”: Lady Anne Clifford, 1590–1676, exh. cat. (Kendal: Abbot Hall Art Gallery, 1990), no. 3, pp. 21–22, as George Clifford, 3rd Earl of Cumberland.
“Miniature Painting,” The New Standard Encyclopedia (Chicago: Standard Educational Corporation, 1990), M-379, (repro.), as Miniature of George Clifford, Earl of Cumberland.
“Miniature,” The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1992), 1149, (repro.), as Portrait of George Clifford, 3rd Earl of Cumberland.
Roger Ward and Patricia J. Fidler, eds., The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art: A Handbook of the Collection (New York: Hudson Hills Press, in association with Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, 1993), 31, 129–130, 175, (repro.).
Gloria Kury, “‘Glancing Surfaces’: Hilliard, Armour, and the Italian Model” in Albion’s Classicism: The Visual Arts in Britain, 1550–1660, ed. Lucy Ghent (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1995), 405–08, (repro.), as George Clifford, 3rd Earl of Cumberland.
Richard T. Spence, The Privateering Earl (Far Thrupp: Alan Sutton, 1995), no. 2, p. 80, (repro.).
Marilyn Stokstad, Art History (New York: Harry N. Abrams, 1999), 743–45, (repro.), as George Clifford, 3rd Earl of Cumberland (1558–1605).
Ann Rosalind Jones and Peter Stallybrass, Renaissance Clothing and the Materials of Memory (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2002), 34–36, (repro.), as George Clifford, 3rd Earl of Cumberland.
Deborah Emont Scott, ed., The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art: A Handbook of the Collection (Kansas City, MO: The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, 2008), 84, as Portrait of George Clifford, Third Earl of Cumberland.
Elizabeth Goldring, Nicholas Hilliard: Life of an Artist (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2019), 233–34, (repro.), as George Clifford, 3rd Earl of Cumberland.
Elizabeth Cleland and Adam Eaker, The Tudors: Art and Majesty in Renaissance England, exh. cat. (New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2022), 184, (repro.).
Blythe Sobol, “Nicholas Hilliard, Portrait of George Clifford, 3rd Earl of Cumberland, ca. 1587,” 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/10.37764/8322.5.1102.
Ian Eaves and Stuart W. Pyhrr, Fit for a King: Tudor and Stuart Armors Made at the Royal Workshops of Greenwich (New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art, forthcoming spring 2026).
