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Eloge de l'Art par Alain Truong
29 novembre 2010

A Portrait Miniature of Elizabeth I Reigns Over Bonhams Sale @ Knightsbridge

LONDON.- Bonhams announced that a portrait miniature of Elizabeth I exceeded the pre-sale estimate of £15,000 - £20,000 in to sell for £40,800 in the Fine Portrait Miniatures sale held at Knightsbridge on 24th November, with the total sale realising £371,000.

The portrait was painted by one of Queen Elizabeth’s favourite miniaturists, Nicholas Hilliard, who chose to specifically concentrate on her costume and jewellery, whilst always painting the Queens face simply and youthfully.

A smart officer wearing a red coatee, painted by the artist John Smart during his time in India in 1794, was also one of the top lots of the sale, realising £24,000.

Further highlights included a portrait miniature by Horace Hone of Sarah Siddons (1755 – 1825), a British actress who found fame on Drury Lane for her portrayal of Lady Macbeth and became the best known tragedienne of the 18th century. The portrait sold for £12,000 against a pre-sale estimate of £6,000 – 8,000.

Other portrait miniatures of historical celebrities included Charles Dickens, painted in 1868 by Walter Saunders Barnard (1851-1930) two years before Dickens died and sold for £1800. Considered to be the first English-language author to have a truly international career during his lifetime, a portrait of novelist Sir Walter Scott (1771 – 1832) by William Bishop Ford (1832 -1922) sold for £1200.

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Nicholas Hilliard (British, 1547-1619) Queen Elizabeth I (1533–1603). Photo: Bonhams.

wearing black figured dress studded with jewels and a fine white lace ruff, gold and ruby crown, seven sapphires in her curled red upswept hair. Watercolour on vellum, gilt-mounted in turned ivory frame. Circular, 32mm (1 1/4in) dia. Sold for £40,800

Provenance :: J.J. Foster
Robert Bayne-Powell Collection, Sotheby's 11 October 1994, lot 22

Exhibited : : Exposition de la Miniature, 1912, no.184

Literature:: The Connoisseur, vol.XXXIII, p.161

Note : The present lot can be closely compared with Hilliard's portrait of the Queen from 1586-7, which was presented to Sir Francis Drake by the Queen. At this period, Hilliard had evolved a formula for producing portraits of the Queen, whereby he could concentrate his efforts on her costume and jewellery. These portraits have an almost mechanically produced 'face mask' typically facing to her right. The present lot, whilst falling into this period of Hilliard's output, is unusual in that the Queen faces to her left.

Born in 1533, Elizabeth was the only child of Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn. At birth, Elizabeth was the heiress presumptive to the throne of England. Her older half-sister, Mary, having lost her position as legitimate heir when Henry annulled his marriage to Mary's mother, Catherine of Aragon. The same fate happened to Elizabeth when her father had her mother beheaded. Eleven days after Anne Boleyn's death, Henry married Jane Seymour who died just 12 days after the birth of their son, Prince Edward. Edward VI succeeded his father in 1547, but died in 1553, aged 15 and Lady Jane Grey was proclaimed queen by the Privy Council. Her support quickly crumbled, and she was deposed after reigning nine days. Mary rode triumphantly into London, with Elizabeth at her side. The show of solidarity between the sisters did not last long due to their differing faiths. Mary, the country's first queen regnant, was determined to crush the Protestant faith which led to uprisings in early 1554. Upon the collapse of the uprising, Elizabeth was brought to court, interrogated and imprisoned in the Tower of London. On 17th April 1555, Elizabeth was recalled to court during the final stages of Mary's supposed pregnancy. When it became clear that Mary was not pregnant, no one believed any longer that she could have a child and Elizabeth's succession was assured. When Mary died at St. James's Palace on the 17th November 1558, Elizabeth became queen at the age of 25.

From the start of Elizabeth's reign, the question arose about whom she would marry. She only seriously considered three or four suitors for any length of time. Of these, her childhood friend Lord Robert Dudley probably came closest. She turned down Philip II's offer in 1559, his cousin Archduke Charles of Austria; and the two French Valois princes in turn, first Henri, Duke of Anjou, and later, his brother François, Duke of Anjou. In 1566, she confided to the Spanish ambassador that if she could find a way to settle the succession without marrying, she would do so. By 1570, senior figures in the government privately accepted that Elizabeth would never marry or name a successor.

Elizabeth's unmarried status inspired a cult of virginity. In poetry and portraiture, she was depicted as a virgin or a goddess or both. At first, only Elizabeth made a virtue of her virginity but later on, particularly after 1578, poets and writers took up the theme and turned it into an iconography that exalted Elizabeth. In an age of metaphors and conceits, she was portrayed as married to her kingdom and subjects, under divine protection. As Elizabeth aged and marriage became unlikely, her image gradually changed. She was portrayed as Belphoebe or Astraea, and after the defeat of the Spanish Armada, as Gloriana, the eternally youthful Faerie Queene of Edmund Spenser's poem. Her painted portraits became less realistic and more a set of enigmatic icons that made her look much younger than she was. In fact, her skin had been scarred by smallpox in 1562, leaving her half bald and dependent on wigs and cosmetics. Elizabeth was happy to play the part, but it seems that in the last decade of her life she began to believe her own performance. She became fond and indulgent of the charming but petulant young Robert Devereux, Earl of Essex. Essex took liberties with her for which she forgave him, repeatedly appointing him to military posts despite his growing record of irresponsibility. In February 1601, the Earl tried to raise a rebellion to seize the Queen but few rallied to his support, and he was beheaded on the 25th of that month.

Elizabeth's most trusted advisor, Lord Burghley, died on the 4th August 1598. His political mantle passed to his son, Robert Cecil, who soon became the leader of the government. One task he addressed was the succession. Since Elizabeth would never name her successor, Cecil was obliged to proceed in secret. He therefore entered into a coded negotiation with James VI of Scotland, who had a strong but unrecognised claim. The Queen remained well until the autumn of 1602, when a series of deaths among her friends plunged her into a severe depression. In February 1603, the death of Catherine Howard, Countess of Nottingham, was the last straw and in March, Elizabeth fell sick and remained in a "settled and unremovable melancholy". She died on the 24th March 1603 at Richmond Palace and a few hours later, James VI of Scotland was proclaimed king of England.
Roy Strong, The English Renaissance Miniature, London, 1983, p.195, note 66 to chapter 5

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John Smart (British, 1742-1811), An Officer

wearing red coatee with yellow facings, silver epaulette embroidered with red badge bearing initials GR, white frilled chemise, black stock, his powdered hair worn en queue and tied with a grey ribbon bow. Signed on the obverse with initials and dated JS/ 1794/ I, gold frame with brooch clasp attachment, the reverse glazed to reveal plaited hair. Oval, 63mm (2 1/2in) high - Sold for £24,000

Note: The present lot dates to Smart's final full year in India. In her book John Smart, the man and his miniatures, Daphne Foskett lists only three miniatures of known sitters dated 1794; Major-General Sir Barry Close (sold, Christie's, 25 June 1968, lot 99); Colonel John Richardson and Thomas Truston.

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Horace Hone, ARA (Irish, circa 1756-1825), Sarah Siddons (1755–1831),

wearing light brown dress with darker trimming at the cuff, dark brown sash, white fichu, wide brimmed hat with lavender ribbon tied in a knot just below her fichu, she props her face up against her right hand, her elbow resting on the table besides her. Signed on the obverse and dated HH/ 1785, gilt-mounted rectangular wood frame. Oval, 75mm (2 15/16in) high - Sold for £12,600

Provenance: Chateau de Wargemont

Note: The present lot can be compared with another portrait by Hone of the previous year, which resides in the National Gallery of Ireland. Painted during Siddons' second visit to Dublin, it is one of the earliest known portraits of the tragic actress and one of the most recognisable, having subsequently been engraved by Francesco Bartolozzi.

By this period, there was a growing demand for images of the celebrities of the day and the theatre proved a good source of commissions for miniaturists. Siddons' image has been immortalised by the leading portraitists of the day, including Thomas Gainsborough, who also painted her seated and in semi-profile c. 1783-85 (NGL), Joshua Reynolds as The Tragic Muse in 1784 (Huntington Art Gallery, San Marino), Gilbert Stuart c.1785 and John Downman in 1787 (both in the NPGL).

Like Gainsborough, Hone has chosen to depict Siddons in semi-profile with a thoughtful gaze in both the NGI version and the present lot. Both miniatures exemplify Hone's mature style of painting. He's executed long sweeping brushstrokes and scored darker areas, such as the sitter's hair, to reveal the ivory support beneath, creating depth and texture, whilst in contrast, he's used little paint on her flesh and the white areas of her dress, giving her skin and fichu a general luminosity that remains faithful to her legendary ageless beauty.

Hone painted several other portraits of Siddons in both watercolour and enamel before having them engraved. Two further versions on ivory are known and like the NGI example, they are both dated 1784. One resides in the collection of the Royal Shakespeare Theatre, Stratford-Upon-Avon. The other depicts the actress turned in the opposite direction and was last recorded in a private collection in 1934.

An enamel portrait, signed and dated 1786, depicting Siddons wearing a hat, is also known and believed to be in private hands. It is perhaps based to a lesser or greater degree on the present lot. A later enamel by Hone, which was based on the 1784 portrait on ivory in the National Gallery of Ireland was exhibited at the RA in 1822, stipple engraved by G.F. Phillips (active 1815-1832) and published in London three years later.

Sarah, the eldest daughter of Roger Kemble, an actor-manager, married in 1773, William Siddons, an actor. Her family life was less than fortunate; she gave birth to seven children but outlived five of them, and her marriage became strained and ended in an informal separation.

In 1774, Siddons' performance as Belvidera in Thomas Otway's 'Venice Preserved' brought her to the attention of David Garrick who engaged her to appear at Drury Lane. However, her first appearances were not well received and she was let go by the manager of Drury Lane. From 1777, she worked in provincial companies, gradually building up a reputation, and her next Drury Lane appearance, on 10 October 1782, could not have been more different. She was an immediate sensation playing the title role in Garrick's adaptation of a play by Thomas Southerne, 'Isabella', or, 'The Fatal Marriage'. It was the beginning of twenty years in which she was the undisputed queen of Drury Lane. Her celebrity status has been called "mythical" and "monumental," and by the mid 1780s Siddons was established as a cultural icon.

In 1802 she left Drury Lane and subsequently appeared at Covent Garden. It was there, on 29 June 1812, that she made her last appearance, playing her most famous role, Lady Macbeth. The audience refused to allow the play to continue after the end of the sleepwalking scene. Eventually, after tumultuous applause from the pit, the curtain reopened and Siddons was discovered sitting in her own clothes and character - whereupon she made an emotional farewell speech to the audience lasting eight minutes.

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