This small oil portrait of a gentleman is painted by an unknown artist who appears to have been familiar both with the miniature oils of Cornelius Johnson and the composition and colours of watercolour portrait miniatures. The red background may have been inspired by the red curtain backgrounds featured in the later miniatures by Nicholas Hilliard and Isaac Oliver. The composition, with the sitter’s head relatively low in the picture frame follows the formula Johnson employed in his small oil portraits.
Cornelius Johnson (1593-1661) enjoyed patronage at the Stuart court and amongst the elite. He is known to have painted miniatures on copper rather than on the more traditional support of vellum on playing card, using oil and not watercolour. Although this portrait is painted in a more tentative technique than that used by Johnson, it certainly relates to his work and may have been painted by a pupil or follower in his circle in London in the 1620s.
This small oil portrait of a gentleman is painted by an unknown artist who appears to have been familiar both with the miniature oils of Cornelius Johnson and the composition and colours of watercolour portrait miniatures. The red background may have been inspired by the red curtain backgrounds featured in the later miniatures by Nicholas Hilliard and Isaac Oliver. The composition, with the sitter’s head relatively low in the picture frame follows the formula Johnson employed in his small oil portraits.
Cornelius Johnson (1593-1661) enjoyed patronage at the Stuart court and amongst the elite. He is known to have painted miniatures on copper rather than on the more traditional support of vellum on playing card, using oil and not watercolour. Although this portrait is painted in a more tentative technique than that used by Johnson, it certainly relates to his work and may have been painted by a pupil or follower in his circle in London in the 1620s.