New Book | British Portrait Miniatures from the Thomson Collection
From Ad Ilissvm, an imprint of Paul Hoberton Publishing and also distributed by The University of Chicago Press (the Thomson Collection is now part of the Art Gallery of Ontario in Toronto):
Susan Sloman, British Portrait Miniatures from the Thomson Collection (London: Ad Ilissvm, 2024), 320 pages, ISBN: 978-1915401120, £80 / $100.
Portrait miniatures were highly prized in Europe for nearly four hundred years; and, unusually, artists based in Britain were the acknowledged masters of this specialised field. Many of the best painters are represented in this remarkable but relatively little-known collection. As is illustrated and described in this book, miniatures were frequently made as tokens of love or memorials of loved ones; part-likeness, part-reliquary and part-jewel, they might be wearable in a locket, on a bracelet, or even on a finger ring, but their portability also made them desirable as gifts.
Styles, techniques, and modes of presentation naturally evolved between 1560 (the date of the first miniature in the catalogue) and around 1900. Some changes happened rapidly; in England, for example, the foundation of exhibiting societies in 1760s created a demand for larger miniatures that could hang on the wall alongside full-sized portraits. The Thomson collection includes fine examples of the work of Nicholas Hilliard (from the Elizabethan period) and John Smart (from the eighteenth century) as well as notable 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 encyclopaedic collection. Reacting to miniatures that spoke most eloquently to him when held in the hand, or examined under a glass, he developed over time a fondness for particular artists and had no qualms about omitting others altogether.
Using this collection housed at the Art Gallery of Ontario as a case study, the catalogue discusses the function of miniatures, their material presence, the circumstances in which they were made, and aspects of their later history. 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. In this book, for the first time, a number of specialist artists’ suppliers are identified, showing where ivory could be obtained and enamel plates prepared and fired. The links between enamelling for clock and watch faces and enamelling for miniatures are demonstrated. The illicit practice within the late nineteenth and early twentieth century art trade of duplicating old miniatures, a topic generally avoided in the literature, is addressed here. Miniatures are difficult to display in museums, but recently-developed photographic methods of identifying pigments are also proving to be a way of introducing a new audience to this multi-layered subject. Eighteen years after Ken Thomson’s death, there could not be a more opportune moment to highlight his collection.
Susan Sloman has written extensively on British art, her most recent book being Gainsborough in London (2021). She has a longstanding interest in studio practice and artists’ premises and a record of unearthing fresh documentation on the lives of artists.
Call for Essays | Miniature Painting and Recipes, 1500–1800
From ArtHist.net:
Miniature Painting and Its Recipes in the Early Modern Period, 1500–1800: The Transmission of Technical Knowledge in the East and West
Volume edited by Mandana Barkeshli and Matthieu Lett
Proposals due by 15 January 2025; completed essays due by 15 November 2025
Peer-reviewed volume edited by Mandana Barkeshli (UCSI University) and Matthieu Lett (Université de Bourgogne/LIR3S, Institut Universitaire de France), to be published in Brill’s book series Studies in Art & Materiality (Editor-in-Chief: Ann-Sophie Lehmann).
In art history, the practice of miniature painting raises unique challenges in terms of definition. This is partly due to its material hybridity—both in terms of supports and pictorial layers (pigments, binders)—but also because of its size and the variety of objects it encompasses. The term miniature covers a wide range of techniques, including painting on paper, vellum, or ivory, as well as enamel and illumination.
In both the East and the West, the early modern period marked a pivotal moment of technical experimentation, coinciding with the development of both professional and amateur practices of miniature painting. During this time, miniature painting was practiced by professionals but also by high-ranking figures such as Shah Tahmasp I and the Spanish queen Marie Louise d’Orléans. The distinctive properties of miniature paints—such as the lack of staining or odor, unlike oil paints—along with the ease of copying compositions, may have encouraged its adoption in courtly settings.
The simultaneous emergence of practical treatises in both the East and West—notably the Qanun us-Suvar by Sadiqi Bek (ca. 1570–1600) and A Treatise Concerning the Arte of Limning by Nicholas Hilliard (ca. 1600)—reflects this phenomenon. These treatises provided recipes for mixing colors, advice on representing certain motifs, and instructions for preparing various supports. They signaled a major shift in how the knowledge and techniques of miniature painting were transmitted. While these texts could not entirely replace the traditional master-apprentice model, some manuscripts and books enabled students to grasp the basics independently. Independent learning was especially encouraged for women, who increasingly pursued miniature painting in Europe from the second half of the 17th century onward. Similarly, Persian women artists made notable, though less documented, contributions to miniature painting during the Safavid and Qajar periods. However, professional training primarily took place within workshops, where the secrets of the craft were closely guarded.
This volume, building on discussions initiated during the 36th CIHA Congress (Lyon, 23–28 June 2024), seeks to study the technical recipes and transmission methods of miniature painting in the East and West from a comparative perspective. By doing so, it aims to illuminate the material hybridity of miniature painting and provide new insights into the conditions of its production.
We invite contributions from academics, museum and library professionals responsible for Eastern or Western miniature collections, and conservation scientists specializing in materials analysis. Topics of interest include, but are not limited to:
1 Materials used in miniature painting (supports, paper colors, sizing, dyes, pigments, inks, binding mediums).
2 Rediscovery of technical knowledge and practices based on historical recipes and/or scientific analysis.
3 The conditions of transmission through oral traditions or written sources, especially recipes.
4 The social (workshops, courts) and/or gendered contexts of transmission.
5 Terminology in historical manuals and recipes, including challenges in translation and understanding the historical context of recipes through modern chemistry.
Comparative approaches are especially encouraged.
The selected contributions will be published in Brill’s Studies in Art & Materiality, a peer-reviewed series dedicated to innovative scholarship on the intersections of art, materials, and making (Editor-in-Chief: Ann-Sophie Lehmann). Authors will be required to submit a full manuscript of up to 50,000 characters (including spaces and references) by 15 November 2025. Each article may include up to 12 images, which should be provided as JPG or TIFF files at 300 DPI resolution. All submissions will undergo a double-blind peer review.
To submit a proposal, please email Mandana Barkeshli (mandana@ucsiuniversity.edu.my) and Matthieu Lett (matthieu.lett@u-bourgogne.fr) by 15 January 2025 with the following documents:
• Title of the proposed paper (concise and reflective of the paper’s content)
• Abstract (350–500 words in English), including 4–6 keywords and a brief bibliography
• Short Curriculum Vitae
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