Portrait miniature
A portrait miniature is a miniature portrait painting from Renaissance art, usually executed in gouache, watercolor, or enamel. Portrait miniatures developed out of the techniques of the miniatures in illuminated manuscripts, and were popular among 16th-century elites, mainly in England and France, and spread across the rest of Europe from the middle of the 18th century, remaining highly popular until the development of daguerreotypes and photography in the mid-19th century. They were usually intimate gifts given within the family, or by hopeful males in courtship, but some rulers, such as James I of England, gave large numbers as diplomatic or political gifts. They were especially likely to be painted when a family member was going to be absent for significant periods, whether a husband or son going to war or emigrating, or a daughter getting married.
The first miniaturists used watercolour to paint on stretched vellum, or on playing cards trimmed to the shape required. The technique was often called limning, or painting in little. During the second half of the 17th century, vitreous enamel painted on copper became increasingly popular, especially in France. In the 18th century, miniatures were painted with watercolour on ivory, which had now become relatively cheap. As small in size as 40 mm × 30 mm, portrait miniatures were often fitted into lockets, inside watch-covers or pieces of jewellery so that they could be carried on the person. Others were framed with stands or hung on a wall, or fitted into snuff box covers.
Early period
The portrait miniature developed from the illuminated manuscript, which had been superseded for the purposes of book illustration by techniques such as woodprints and calc printing. The earliest portrait miniaturists were famous manuscript painters like Jean Fouquet, and Simon Bening, whose daughter Levina Teerlinc mostly painted portrait miniatures, and moved to England, where her predecessor as court artist, Hans Holbein the Younger painted some miniatures. Lucas Horenbout was another Netherlandish miniature painter at the court of Henry VIII.Image:Jean Fouquet.png|thumb|left|220px|Jean Fouquet, self-portrait. The earliest portrait miniature, and possibly the earliest formal self-portrait.
France also had a strong tradition of miniatures, centred on the court, although this came to concentrate in the mid-16th century on larger images, about the range of sizes of the modern paperback book, which might not qualify as miniatures in the usual sense. These might be paintings, or finished drawings with some colour, and were produced by François Clouet, and his followers.
The earliest French miniature painters were Jean Clouet, his son François Clouet, Jean Perréal and others; but of their work in portraiture we have little trace at the present day, although there are many portraits and a vast number of drawings attributed to them. The seven portraits in the Manuscript of the Gallic War are assigned to the eider Clouet; and to them may be added a fine work, in the Pierpont Morgan collection, representing the Marschal de Brissac. Following these men we find Simon Renard de St. André, and Jean Cotelle. Others whose names might be mentioned were Joseph Werner, and Rosalba Carriera.
The first famous native English portrait miniaturist is Nicholas Hilliard, whose work was conservative in style but very sensitive to the character of the sitter; his best works are beautifully executed. The colours are opaque, and gold is used to heighten the effect, while the paintings are on card. They are often signed, and have frequently also a Latin motto upon them. Hilliard worked for a while in France, and he is probably identical with the painter alluded to in 1577 as Nicholas Belliart. Hilliard was succeeded by his son Lawrence Hilliard ; his technique was similar to that of his father, but bolder, and his miniatures richer in colour.
Isaac Oliver and his son Peter Oliver succeeded Hilliard. Isaac was the pupil of Hilliard. Peter was the pupil of Isaac. The two men were the earliest to give roundness and form to the faces they painted. Peter painted initially very like his father, with tiny, coloured dots, giving the portraits a three-dimensionality. Peter Oliver then developed Isaac's style, loosening the dots, and using softer, broader brush strokes to model the faces. They signed their best works in monogram, and painted not only very small miniatures, but larger ones measuring as much as. They copied for Charles I of England on a small scale many of his famous pictures by the old masters.
File:Hans Holbein the Younger - Margaret Roper.JPG|thumb|Portrait Miniature of Margaret Roper by Hans Holbein the Younger,
Other miniaturists at about the same date included Balthazar Gerbier, George Jamesone, Penelope Cleyn and her brothers. John Hoskins was followed by a son of the same name, who was known to have been living in 1700, since a miniature signed by him and bearing that date is in the Pierpont Morgan collection, representing James FitzJames, 1st Duke of Berwick.
Samuel Cooper was a nephew and student of the elder Hoskins, and is considered the greatest English portrait miniaturist. He spent much of his time in Paris and Holland, and very little is known of his career. His work has a superb breadth and dignity, and has been well called life-size work in little. His portraits of the men of the Puritan epoch are remarkable for their truth to life and strength of handling. He painted upon card, chicken skin and vellum, and on two occasions upon thin pieces of mutton bone. The use of ivory was not introduced until long after his time. His work is frequently signed with his initials, generally in gold, and very often with the addition of the date.
Other miniaturists of this period include Alexander Cooper, who painted a series of portraits of the children of the king and queen of Bohemia; David des Granges ; Richard Gibson ; and Charles Beale the Elder and Mary Beale. They are followed by such artists as Gervase Spencer, Bernard Lens III, Nathaniel Hone and Jeremiah Meyer, the latter two notable in connection with the foundation of the Royal Academy. The workers in black lead must not be overlooked, especially David Loggan, William Faithorne and John Faber the Elder. They drew with exquisite detail and great effect on paper or vellum.
On 28 April 1733, there was a terrible destruction of portrait miniatures in a fire at White's Chocolate and Coffee House. Sir Andrew Fountaine rented two rooms at White's to temporarily hold his huge collection of portraits done by Hilliard, the Olivers, Samuel Cooper, and others. The entire house burned down; the number of paintings destroyed was so large that the ashes were carefully sifted to recover the gold from the incinerated mountings of the miniatures.
Peak period, by country
Denmark
In Denmark, Cornelius Høyer specialized in miniature painting in the second half of the 18th century and was appointed Miniature Painter to the Danish Court in 1769. He also worked at several other European courts and won a considerable international reputation. He was succeeded by Christian Horneman as Denmark's premier proponent of the special trade of miniature portraits. Among his most known works are a portrait of Ludwig van Beethoven from 1802 of which Beethoven was particularly fond—possibly because it presents him to a more handsome appearance than most other portraits.File:Arthur Wellesley1808, by Richard Cosway.jpg|left|thumb|The future Duke of Wellington in 1808, by Richard Cosway.|alt=|252x252px
England
The 18th century produced a great number of miniature painters, of whom Richard Cosway is the most famous. His works are of great beauty, and executed with a dash and brilliance which no other artist equalled. His best work was done about 1799. His portraits are generally on ivory, although occasionally he worked on paper or vellum, and he produced a great many full-length pencil drawings on paper, in which he slightly tinted the faces and hands, and these he called "stayned drawings". Cosway's finest miniatures are signed on the back; there is but one genuine signed on the face; very few bear even his initials on the front.George Engleheart painted 4,900 miniatures; it is often signed E or G.E. Andrew Plimer was a pupil of Cosway, and both he and his brother Nathaniel Plimer produced some lovely portraits. The brightness of the eyes, wiriness of the hair, exuberance of colour, combined with forced chiaroscuro and often very inaccurate drawing, are characteristics of Andrew Plimer's work. John Smart was in some respects the greatest of the 18th-century miniaturists. His work was hailed by contemporaries for his excellence in refinement, power and delicacy; its silky texture and elaborate finish, and the artists love for a brown background. Other notable painters were Richard Crosse, Ozias Humphry, Samuel Shelley, whose best pictures are groups of two or more persons, Henry Edridge, John Bogle, and Edward Dayes.
The period also produced an exceptional painter in enamel on copper, Henry Bone R.A.. Bone expanded the size of miniatures that could be produced, working on historical and contemporary portraits, religious and mythical scenes, and old masters. He became the only enamel painter to achieve Royal Academy membership and was appointed as enameller to Kings George III, George IV, and William IV.