ISAAC OLIVER (ANGLO-FRENCH, C. 1565-1617)
PROPERTY FROM THE ESTATE OF THE LATE SIR BRINSLEY FORD, C.B.E. (1908-1999)
ISAAC OLIVER (ANGLO-FRENCH, C. 1565-1617)

Details
ISAAC OLIVER (ANGLO-FRENCH, C. 1565-1617)
A gentleman, aged 43, called a member of the Fanshawe Family of Ware Park, in mauve doublet and white ruff, dark hair and beard; mauve background with gold border
inscribed in gold in the background 'Ano. Dm. 1608. / AEta. 43.'
on vellum laid down on card, laid down on wood inscribed in pencil on reverse 'W44'
oval, 2? in. (54 mm.) high, gilt-metal frame with spiral surmount
Provenance
The Earl of Gainsborough.
John Pierpont Morgan (1837-1913) Collection, New York; Christie's, London, 24 June 1935, lot 181 (as 'Portrait of a Gentleman, a member of the Fanshawe family, of Ware Park', £70 to Sir Brinsley Ford), and by direct family descent.
Literature
G. C. Williamson, Catalogue of the Collection of Miniatures, the Property of J. Pierpont Morgan, London, I, 1906-07, p. 61, no. 58 (as 'Sir Henry Fanshawe').
C. Winter, 'Hilliard and Elizabethan Miniatures', Burlington Magazine, LXXXIX, 1947, p. 178, illustrated pl. IIIC.
G. Reynolds, English Portrait Miniatures, London, 1952, p. 26, illustrated pl. 4, fig. 13.
E. Auerbach, Nicholas Hilliard, London, 1961, p. 246, illustrated pl. 215, and p. 330, no. 250.
J. Finsten, Isaac Oliver, New York, 1981, II, p. 88, no. 55, illustrated fig. 55.
B. Ford, 'The Ford Collection', The Walpole Society, vol. 60, 1998, illustrated in colour Part I, pl. 139, Part II, p. 224, no. RBF310.
Exhibited
London, Victoria & Albert Museum, Nicholas Hilliard and Isaac Oliver, 1947, no. 166 (as 'Called a member of the Fanshawe Family of Ware Park').
London, Victoria & Albert Museum, Nicholas Hilliard and Isaac Oliver, 1971, no. 166 (as 'Called a member of the Fanshawe Family of Ware Park').
Edinburgh, Scottish Arts Council Gallery, A Kind of Gentle Painting, 1975, no. 63.

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Lot Essay

The present miniature is considered to have been influenced by the Venetian artists to whom Oliver would have been exposed during his trip to Venice during the 1590s and further shows the artist’s development from the Dutch influence inspired by the engravings of Hendrik Goltzius (as seen in lot 107). Another notable shift in Oliver’s approach to miniature painter is the powerful observation of the character of his sitters. For a similar example of this style, see exhibition catalogue Nicholas Hilliard & Isaac Oliver, London, 1971, no. 137, now in the Portland Collection at Welbeck Abbey.
The earlier identification of the sitter as Sir Henry Fanshawe cannot be substantiated as Sir Henry Fanshawe was born in 1569 and would therefore have been 38 or 39 in 1608, rather than 43 as identified in the inscription. No other members of the Fanshawe family were born in 1563 or 1564. The identity of the sitter remains uncertain.

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