British Portrait Miniatures from the Thomson Collection

A selection of rare British portrait miniatures from a collection housed at the Art Gallery of Ontario.

Portrait miniatures were highly prized in Europe for nearly four hundred years, with artists based in Britain as the acknowledged masters of this specialized field. Many of the best portrait painters are represented in British Portrait Miniatures from the Thomson Collection. Using the collection housed at the Art Gallery of Ontario as a case study, this book discusses the function of miniatures, their material presence, the circumstances in which they were made, and aspects of their later history.

Part-likeness, part reliquary, and part-jewel, miniatures were frequently made as tokens of love or memorials of loved ones. Styles, techniques, and modes of presentation naturally evolved between 1560 (the date of the first miniature in the book) and around 1900. Some changes happened rapidly. In England, for example, the foundation of exhibiting societies in the 1760s created a demand for larger miniatures that could hang on the wall alongside full-sized portraits. The Thomson collection includes examples of the work of Nicholas Hilliard and John Smart, as well as portraits by less familiar names such as Jacob Van Doordt and James Scouler. It is apparent from the scope and character of his acquisitions that Ken Thomson never planned an encyclopedic collection; he developed a fondness over time for particular artists and had no qualms about omitting others altogether.

The homes and studios of the most successful painters, as sumptuous as those occupied by oil painters, often passed from one generation to another: here, one key property in Covent Garden is described and illustrated. For the first time, several specialist artists’ suppliers are also identified. The illicit practice within the late nineteenth and early twentieth-century art trade of duplicating old miniatures is addressed here as well. Miniatures are difficult to display in museums, but recently developed photographic methods are introducing a new audience to this multilayered subject. Eighteen years after Thomson’s death, there could not be a more opportune moment to highlight his collection.

Susan Sloman has written extensively on British art, including, most recently, Gainsborough in London.