Isaac Oliver (died 1617)

Details

Isaac Oliver (died 1617)

A Fine Portrait Miniature of a Lady, facing left in black dress sewn with many ruffles, lace-edged bodice, lace collar over plain ruff, two strands of pearls about the neck, black cap with peak over the simply-dressed hair, blue background with gold border

on vellum, gold frame with blue enamelled border and a pendant pearl, the reverse with Gothic S in white on a blue ground and the motto SANS REGRET on the bar
oval, 1 7/8in. (47mm.) high

Provenance

Charles Stein; Galerie Georges Petit, Paris, 9 June 1899, lot 49
J. Pierpont Morgan; Christie's, 24 June 1935, lot 106, as a Portrait of Gabrielle d'Estrées by Nicholas Hilliard (155 gns. to Dr. Beets)

Literature

G. C. Williamson, Catalogue of the Collection of Miniatures, the property of J. Pierpont Morgan, London, 1906-7, I, p. 25, pl. XIII, no. 2 (no. 19)
G. C. Williamson, Mr J. Pierpont Morgan's Pictures, The Early Miniatures I, The Connoisseur, London, December 1906, p. 204, ill. no. X

Lot Essay

When Williamson catalogued this fine miniature in 1906 not only did he identify the sitter as the notorious Gabrielle d'Estrées (1573-1599), mistress of Henry IV of France, and the artist as Nicholas Hilliard, but he suggested that the initial S with bar was a rebus upon the word Largesse or Sagesse.

The smile playing about the mouth of this attractive sitter probably led to the suggestion of Gabrielle d'Estrées, who had a pointed chin to her heart-shaped face. The attribution to Hilliard is understandable as he appears to have experimented with a style close to that of his pupil and later rival, Isaac Oliver, at the end of the 16th Century. Graham Reynolds unravelled many such misattributions in his catalogue Nicholas Hilliard and Isaac Oliver (London, 1971)

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