Cathy's Art Diary

Comprehensive online course from the Wallace Collection examining their miniatures collection. Stephen Duffy, a retired senior curator from the museum, took us though the history of the art form and the collection o the first day. There are 334 miniatures in the collection from the 16th to the 19th century. He talked about the different technical styles from watercolour on vellum or card through to enameling then moved onto the collecting style of the various Marquises of Herford.   On the second day he divided the French from the British and other miniatures in the collection and led us through the main artists of both and how the collection reflected these. He looked at the French first as the Wallace Collection is one of the best collections outside of France for these. In both cases he had wonderful illustrations which allowed you to better detail than even seeing them in person. It certainly made me want to revisit the museum and lift up more of those mysterious le...

Beautiful exhibition at the Philip Mould Gallery of Elizabethan and Jacobean portraits. This show had a wonderful selection of pictures both miniatures and full-scale works. They were shown with excellent descriptions detailing new research on the works. Small moan though that the labels were hard to read as they were places quite low in a low-lit room. They played havoc with my varifocals! I was very touched to see tiny miniatures of Elizabeth I and Robert Dudley, about the size of a thumbnail. It seems likely these were commissioned by Dudley as it was unlikely anyone else would have dared to commission this pair. The Elizabeth was a less formalised version than we usually see. It was a nice hang to put next to a formal full-scale version of her in a Pelican and Tudor Rose dress. There were five Hilliards in the show and an Isaac Oliver and these miniatures were clearly show with magnifying glasses provide. I was intrigued by   newly found Decourt of Henry III of France who...

Fascinating international conference at the National Portrait Gallery jointly organised with the Paul Mellon Centre for Studies in British Art and the University of Cambridge looking at new research into the miniature of Nicholas Hilliard and Isaac Oliver. The two day conference complimented the current superb exhibition at the Gallery and consisted of 18 academic papers in seven sessions plus a keynote lecture. There was a fascinating array of topics and I particularly liked the ones looking at the attribution of a picture or the identification of the sitter. It was interesting to hear about other artists working in this field and an ongoing debate as to how many ‘diverse others’ there were. Hilliard claims to have taught many people but can we see their hands in the work? Another ongoing discussion centred around whether the playing cards which were used as the support for the paintings were chosen with specific subjects in mind such as the Ace of Diamonds for royalty. ...

Fabulous exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery looking at portrait miniatures by Nicholas Hilliard and Isaac Oliver. This show displays these small jewel like items really well and manages to pace the show well despite the crowds with magnifying glasses thronging the display cases. It leads you around in a chronological narrative with gentle themes woven into that. The show gives you a picture of the lives of these two artists and of the courts they worked for. As ever with shows showing a generation of sitters you come away with lots of stores to look up. I loved the section on Hilliards trip to France including a never shown before portrait by him of Henry III and the twin portraits in big of Elizabeth I and Sir Amyas Paulet, the English Ambassador to Paris, which are thought to have hung in his studio in Paris. There was also a good section on images of Elizabeth and how these were controlled. I loved seeing Oliver’s wonderful detailed drawing of her which was use...