Studio: international art (71.1917)

The Beauchamft Miniatures in the Victoria and Albert Museum

ANNE DIGBY, COUNTESS OF SUNDERLAND (1646-
I7I5). BY SAMUEL COOPER (DATED 1660)

the Charles I in the Beauchamp collection' being
exhibited in the same name. As a centre from
which to regard this question, let us take the
miniatures Charles I and Queen Henrietta Maria
in this collection, but for our purpose here more
particularly the Charles I. Faded as this
miniature is, it still remains one of the finest
ever painted. I choose it, though there I are
many other portraits from the same hand in
better state, because it is so characteristic of a
sympathy .in Hoskins' line that makes him, in
this one respect, the superior even of Cooper.
From this miniature we cannot doubt that the
artist worshipped the king and penetrated into
the sweetness of his character. The intimacy
that Hoskins establishes with his sitters and the
sympathetic quality of his line imparts a dis-
tinction to his work that is nowhere matched.
The character-reading is less matter-of-fact and
critical than with Cooper, it is altogether more
friendly to the sitter. The line caresses, it has
a sensitiveness unrivalled. When Cooper came
to emancipate himself completely from Hoskins'
influence, he embraced that ideal of the highly
modelled polished surface that painting took
from sculpture in the later Renaissance. And
wonderful as is the " reality " of Cooper's art
at its most characteristic moment, devoid of
self-consciousness as is his touch, much interest
is lost from the entire suppression of every
88

caligraphic feature. He bequeaths to all the
miniaturists for a hundred years the polished
finish that was death to freedom of hand, and
to that caress in the touch that makes a Hoskins
and an early Cooper miniature objects of per-
manent delight. Cooper achieved the art that
conceals art for no better reason, apparently,
than that Philistines even in his own day hated
every sign of the means by which an effect was
achieved. They did not wish the miniature
to look as if it was done by hand. They pre-
ferred it to be a miracle. Yet autographic
characteristics could not be altogether sup-
pressed in miniature work until they were finally
buried in enamel. The disciples of Cooper may
still be graded as artists by the expression of
their sense of line.

In a miniature of the Earl of Ossory signed
by Flatman (1637—1688) we a verY charac-
teristic specimen of post-Cooper style. There
is none of the subtle appreciation of modelling
and suave drawing that makes Cooper's work
so remarkable, but instead, on a papery-looking
surface tint of brown, drawing that is sharp
enough in definition but unsympathetic.

Flatman miniatures have faded, but they have
not faded beautifully—that is all at once—like
the Hoskins* miniature of Charles I. The
Flatman complexion tones sink, leaving sharp

ANNE RICH, LADY BARRINGTON (MARRIED 1664)
PROBABLY BY NICHOLAS DIXON