The first quarter of the eighteenth century saw a rapid evolution in limning, or portrait miniature painting, with new materials and techniques introduced to the genre. Small oil on copper portraits had been painted in the seventeenth century, and although a handful of artists were known to include these in their repertoire, many more were painted by unknown artists.[1]

Although painting on metal is a technique which dates back to the fifteenth century, by the early eighteenth century it was virtually unknown as a substrate. This crisply painted, beautifully observed portrait may be by an artist keen to experiment in different techniques. With scientific advances, artists were beginning to paint in enamel, which was fired and more commonly use ivory as a support for watercolour.

The artist here is likely to have been part of the group of portraitists, whose number included Michael Dahl (1656-1743); Joseph Goupy (died before 1782); Gawen Hamilton (1698-1737) (whose conversation style not infrequently has been confused with Hogarth's); Hans Hysing (1678-1752/3) and George Vertue (1683-1756). The scale of the portrait is similar to a head portrait which might be found in a conversation piece of the period. These informal group portraits gained huge popularity at this point – particularly with the emerging middle classes, from which the sitter here might have belonged.

Metal was an excellent conduit for artists to work on, as the surface is smooth and hard, allowing for the colours to appear ultra-bright. As can be seen with the present work, it also preserves colours, which were laid over a primer. The unknown sitter here wears a luxuriant, long wig which is unpowdered. His coat is trimmed with expensive silver thread, known as ‘lace’ and solid silver buttons.