A Fine Line: Master Works on Paper from Five Centuries
A Fine Line: Master Works on Paper from Five Centuries
Property of a Gentleman
Isaac Oliver
Portrait of a lady
Auction Closed
July 7, 10:53 AM GMT
Estimate
12,000 - 18,000 GBP
Lot Details
Description
Property of a Gentleman
Isaac Oliver
Rouen circa 1556 - 1617 London
Portrait of a lady
Watercolour and bodycolour, heightened with gold and silver on vellum, gold frame with leaf-engraved border and open work scroll surmount, the glass back decorated in gold with Berainesque scrolls, the underside lacquered burnt-orange, the foiled ground stamped with concentric bands;
signed centre right with the artist's monogram and dated: 1617 / IO
53 by 44 mm
Along with Nicholas Hilliard (1547-1619), with whom he trained in the early 1580s, Isaac Oliver is considered the greatest ‘limner’ of his time. In 1612 Henry Peacham wrote: .. Mr Isaac Oliver [was] inferior to none in Christendom for the countenance in small.’1
This sensitive portrait was painted in the last year of Oliver’s life. While the sitter's status is suggested by a pearl drop earring and the hint of a fine dress below her cascading hair, the significance of the portrait rests in Oliver's ability to capture her personality.
The miniature was reframed in the early 18th century. It is interesting to compare the frame with those for another group of early portrait miniatures that were reframed by James Sotheby (1655-1720) at the same date (see 'The Sotheby Collection of English Miniatures', London, Sotheby's, 11 October 1955). Interestingly, in the January 1705 James Sotheby paid £9 5s. 3d. to the goldsmith James Seamer for a frame to hold a miniature of Venus and Cupid by Peter Oliver, Isaac Oliver's son (see lot 48). The glass back is an ingenious attempt to recreate the effect of taille d'épargne enamel.
1. M. Edmond, Hillard & Oliver, The Lives and works of two great miniaturists, London 1983, p. 1