{"meta":{"version":"2.1","_links":{"self":{"href":"https://api.vam.ac.uk/v2/object/O1067950"},"collection_page":{"href":"https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O1067950/"}},"images":{"_primary_thumbnail":"https://framemark.vam.ac.uk/collections/2016JA2671/full/!100,100/0/default.jpg","_iiif_image":"https://framemark.vam.ac.uk/collections/2016JA2671/","_alt_iiif_image":[],"imageResolution":"high","_images_meta":[{"assetRef":"2016JA2671","copyright":"©Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2016JA2672","copyright":"©Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2012FF0342","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2006AH2106","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2017JU0648","copyright":"©Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false}]},"see_also":{"_iiif_pres":"https://iiif.vam.ac.uk/collections/O1067950/manifest.json","_alt_iiif_pres":[]}},"record":{"systemNumber":"O1067950","accessionNumber":"P.15-1941","objectType":"Portrait miniature","titles":[{"title":"Portrait Miniature of Frances Howard, Duchess of Richmond and Lennox","type":"generic title"}],"summaryDescription":"","physicalDescription":"Portrait miniature of Frances Howard, head and shoulders, wearing a crown, in an oval frame with a loop at top.  The reverse of the backing card is painted with a design of oval bands and scallops in ochre, brown and gold.","artistMakerPerson":[{"name":{"text":"Nicholas Hilliard","id":"A8506"},"association":{"text":"artist","id":"AAT25103"},"note":""}],"artistMakerOrganisations":[],"artistMakerPeople":[],"materials":[{"text":"cardboard","id":"AAT14224"},{"text":"vellum","id":"x42751"},{"text":"watercolour","id":"AAT15045"}],"techniques":[{"text":"painting","id":"AAT54216"}],"materialsAndTechniques":"Watercolour on vellum, stuck onto a card","categories":[{"text":"Paintings","id":"THES48917"},{"text":"Portraits","id":"THES48906"}],"styles":[{"text":"English School","id":"x44855"},{"text":"Stuart","id":"AAT21037"},{"text":"Jacobean","id":"AAT107014"}],"collectionCode":{"text":"PDP","id":"THES48595"},"images":["2016JA2671","2016JA2672","2012FF0342","2006AH2106","2017JU0648"],"imageResolution":"high","galleryLocations":[{"current":{"text":"LVLF","id":"THES49656"},"free":"","case":"RMC","shelf":"1","box":"A"}],"partTypes":[[{"text":"miniature","id":"AAT33936"}]],"contentWarnings":[{"apprise":"","note":""}],"placesOfOrigin":[{"place":{"text":"England","id":"x28826"},"association":{"text":"painted","id":"x30138"},"note":""}],"productionDates":[{"date":{"text":"1605-1610","earliest":"1605-01-01","latest":"1610-12-31"},"association":{"text":"painted","id":"x30138"},"note":""}],"associatedObjects":[],"creditLine":"Given by Mrs Emma Joseph","dimensions":[{"dimension":"Height","value":"32","unit":"mm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"","note":""},{"dimension":"Width","value":"26","unit":"mm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"","note":""},{"dimension":"Height","value":"42","unit":"mm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"Feb 2012","earliest":"2012-02-01","latest":"2012-02-29"},"part":"case","note":""},{"dimension":"Width","value":"29","unit":"mm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"Feb 2012","earliest":"2012-02-01","latest":"2012-02-29"},"part":"case","note":""},{"dimension":"Depth","value":"5","unit":"mm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"Feb 2012","earliest":"2012-02-01","latest":"2012-02-29"},"part":"case","note":""}],"dimensionsNote":"Dimensions taken from: Strong, Roy. <u>Artists of the Tudor Court: the Portrait Miniature Rediscovered 1520-1620.</u>. London: The Victoria and Albert Museum, 1983. ","marksAndInscriptions":[{"content":"'Duch]<i>ess of Richmo[nd]…by Hilliard / … / Elizabeth… / …. / married to [Frederick] K. of Bohem[ia] 1602'","inscriber":{"name":{"text":"","id":""},"association":{"text":"","id":""}},"date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"description":"","interpretation":"","language":"","medium":"","method":"","position":"","script":"","translation":"","transliteration":"","type":"","note":"On the back of the frame there is a piece of card with a 17th century inscription crossed through and only barely legible in parts"}],"objectHistory":"COLLECTIONS:  Given by Mrs Emma Joseph, widow of Samuel S. Joseph. 1941; no previous history.\r\n","historicalContext":"","briefDescription":"Portrait Miniature, Portrait Miniature of Frances Howard, Duchess of Richmond and Lennox, by Nicholas Hilliard, watercolour on vellum, ca. 1605-1610","bibliographicReferences":[{"reference":{"text":"","id":""},"details":"","free":"Strong, Roy. <u>Artists of the Tudor Court: the Portrait Miniature Rediscovered 1520-1620.</u>. London: The Victoria and Albert Museum, 1983. Cat. 114, pp. 89-90. \n\nPart Citation:\r\n\r\n\"Frances Howard (1578-1639) was the daughter of Thomas, 1st Viscount Howard of Bindon.  Through her first marriage to a City merchant, Henry Pranell, she became a great heiress.  In December 1600 she married as her second husband Edward Seymour, Earl of Hertford (1539?-1621), eldest son of Edward Seymour, 1st Duke of Somerset, Edward VI’s Lord Protector.  He died on April 6th 1621 and Frances married almost immediately the King’s cousin, Ludovick Stuart, 2nd Duke of Lennox and Duke of Richmond (1574-1624).  Ambitious and beautiful she was called the “double Duchess”.\r\n\r\nThis portrait is a good example of Hilliard’s sustained powers of observation in the new reign when his work, too often judged by repetitions and studio replicas of royal portraits, is held to go into decline.  The portrait of the Duchess of Lennox is one of a number of miniatures that decisively reverse the judgement.  It is from life and of high quality.  Although undated the costume is of about c.1605-10; the jewelled sash is paralleled in portraits of Elizabeth, Queen of Bohemia as a girl (see P.4-1937)\r\n\r\nUntil recently the miniature was wrongly identified as Arabella Stuart, a fate likely to befall portraits of Elizabethan and Jacobean ladies wearing their hair loose as in the early portrait of Arabella at Hardwick Hall (Roy Strong, <i>Tudor and Jacobean</i>, II, pl. 602).  During a recent technical examination the seventeenth century inscription was discovered.  It was only partly decipherable and had been crossed out and replaced with a wrong identification as Elizabeth, Queen of Bohemia.\r\n\r\nThe discovery of this is important for the iconography of the Duchess of Lennox as a whole as her name is another one likely to drift onto Jacobean portraits.  Previously the most certain likenesses of her were engravings published in here lifetime and inscribed as being here.  One by Francis Delaram c. 1610-15 depicts here as Countess of Hertford (Hind, <i>Engraving</i>, II, pp. 229-30).  A second, again by Delaram, is dated 1623 and records here as Duchess of Richmond and Lennox (ibid., II, p. 230, pl. 132 (b)).  A third issued in the same year is by Willem van de Passe (ibid., II, p. 293, pl. 178(c)).  The first two are based on the full length portrait by William Larkin at Helmingham Hall (Roy Strong, <i>The English Icon</i>, p. 320 (no. 235)), even to including the jewellery, albeit slightly rearranged.  This must be before the artist’s demise in 1617 and from the costume, can be dated to c. 1615 so must therefore depict her as Lady Hertford.  This is important because the Hilliard miniature emerges as the only certain likeness before that date.\r\n\r\n\r\n"},{"reference":{"text":"","id":""},"details":"","free":"<u>Victoria and Albert Museum, Department of Engraving, Illustration and Design and Department of Paintings, Accessions 1941</u>, London: HMSO, 1954: Catalogued mistakenly as \"Miniature portrait of a lady, said to be Lady Arabella Stuart (1575-1615)\".  "}],"production":"","productionType":{"text":"","id":""},"contentDescription":"Portrait of a woman, head and shoulders, to front; the sitter is wearing a crown, lace collar, a necklace and a dress adorned with jewels.","contentPlaces":[],"associatedPlaces":[],"contentPerson":[{"text":"Frances Howard","id":"AUTH316045"}],"associatedPerson":[],"contentOrganisations":[],"associatedOrganisations":[],"contentPeople":[],"associatedPeople":[],"contentEvents":[],"associatedEvents":[],"contentOthers":[{"text":"woman","id":"AAT25943"},{"text":"crown","id":"x40442"},{"text":"jewellery","id":"AAT209286"}],"contentConcepts":[],"contentLiteraryRefs":[],"galleryLabels":[],"partNumbers":["P.15-1941"],"accessionNumberNum":"15","accessionNumberPrefix":"P","accessionYear":1941,"otherNumbers":[],"copyNumber":"","aspects":["WHOLE"],"assets":[],"recordModificationDate":"2025-07-29","recordCreationDate":"2009-06-30","availableToBook":false}}