Studio: international art (71.1917)

The Beauchamp Miniatures at the Victoria and Albert Museum

but in certain hands the art of miniature has
the unpleasant look of an overblown flower.
In Anne Rich, Lady Barrington, probably by
Dixon, the colour is hot and the blues metallic
in their affected brilliance. But a signed male
portrait by that hand, of Sir Henry Blount,
shows that Dixon could analyze male character
in masterly fashion. He may have taken the
cynical Restoration view that women had no
character. The Blount portrait shows the
brown surface for complexion tint that was
noticed in the work of Flatman. A miniature
here by Charles Beale, perhaps of Ursula Stawell,

anne carr, duchess of bedford (1615-1684)
by richard gibson

lines of drawing too emphatic to be of good
effect. But Flatman can give his own view of
his sitter, while Dixon, flourishing 1667-1708,
takes '. he conventions of Lely and debases them,
sometimes exaggerating the type in female
portraiture to a repellent degree. At this
period the Cooper influence is still paramount.

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anne hamilton, countess of southesk
(ob. c. 1670). artist unknown

Duchess of Buckingham, shows the style in
which Lely's characteristics could be carica-
tured. The artist seems to have had little power
of personal observation. His miniatures are
made from a recipe that was supplied by his
mother, a pupil of Lely.

A signed miniature, Lady Molesworth, by
Bernard Lens (1682-1740) brings us to a period
when competition seems chiefly centred upon
the attempt to reduce the scale on which a head
could be painted. Miniatures in which the style
is too bold for the proportions of the surface
employed, though as well done as the Gentleman
Elizabeth harvey countess of stamford Unknown of Christian Richter, are not very

(c. 1657-1687)

attributed to mary beale attractive. There is lost in them that accent 01

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