{"meta":{"version":"2.1","_links":{"self":{"href":"https://api.vam.ac.uk/v2/object/O1070373"},"collection_page":{"href":"https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O1070373/"}},"images":{"_primary_thumbnail":"https://framemark.vam.ac.uk/collections/2019MD6082/full/!100,100/0/default.jpg","_iiif_image":"https://framemark.vam.ac.uk/collections/2019MD6082/","_alt_iiif_image":[],"imageResolution":"high","_images_meta":[{"assetRef":"2019MD6082","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2017JY2239","copyright":"©Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false}]},"see_also":{"_iiif_pres":"https://iiif.vam.ac.uk/collections/O1070373/manifest.json","_alt_iiif_pres":[]}},"record":{"systemNumber":"O1070373","accessionNumber":"EVANS.4","objectType":"Portrait Miniature","titles":[{"title":"Portrait Miniature of a Man, said to be Robert Carr, Earl of Somerset","type":"generic title"}],"summaryDescription":"","physicalDescription":"Portrait, head and shoulders, turned slightly to right and looking to front.  Features stippled and hatched in red with some dark brown, blue for the shadows and touches of white in the eyes, on a warm carnation ground; hair hatched in black over pale brown wash; collar and shirt modelled in white over pale brown; robe in black; background floated wet-in-wet in lake; a gold marginal strip (truncated); on vellum put down on pasteboard, painted brown on the back. \r\n \r\n<u>Frame:</u> An apparently nineteenth-century gold locket, the hanger removed, set in a wood frame, turned and stained black.","artistMakerPerson":[{"name":{"text":"Hoskins, John (I)","id":"A2210"},"association":{"text":"artist","id":"AAT25103"},"note":""}],"artistMakerOrganisations":[],"artistMakerPeople":[],"materials":[{"text":"vellum","id":"x42751"},{"text":"watercolour","id":"AAT15045"}],"techniques":[{"text":"painting","id":"AAT54216"}],"materialsAndTechniques":"Watercolour on vellum put down on pasteboard, painted brown on the back","categories":[{"text":"Portraits","id":"THES48906"},{"text":"Paintings","id":"THES48917"},{"text":"Scotland","id":"THES262877"}],"styles":[{"text":"English School","id":"x44855"},{"text":"Stuart","id":"AAT21037"}],"collectionCode":{"text":"PDP","id":"THES48595"},"images":["2019MD6082","2017JY2239"],"imageResolution":"high","galleryLocations":[{"current":{"text":"LVLF","id":"THES49656"},"free":"","case":"RMC","shelf":"1","box":"D"}],"partTypes":[[{"text":"miniature","id":"AAT33936"}]],"contentWarnings":[{"apprise":"","note":""}],"placesOfOrigin":[{"place":{"text":"England","id":"x28826"},"association":{"text":"painted","id":"x30138"},"note":""}],"productionDates":[{"date":{"text":"ca.1620","earliest":"1615-01-01","latest":"1624-12-31"},"association":{"text":"painted","id":"x30138"},"note":""}],"associatedObjects":[],"creditLine":"Alan Evans Bequest, given by the National Gallery","dimensions":[{"dimension":"Height","value":"38","unit":"mm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"","note":""},{"dimension":"Width","value":"32","unit":"mm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"","note":""}],"dimensionsNote":"Dimensions taken from John Murdoch <u>Seventeenth-century English Miniatures in the collection of the Victoria and Albert Museum</u>. London: The Stationery Office, 1997.","marksAndInscriptions":[],"objectHistory":"Murdoch, John.  Seventeenth-century English Miniatures in the collection of the  Victoria and Albert Museum. London: The Stationery Office, 1997.\r\nCatalogue number:  39, p.77. Full Citation:   \r\n\t \r\nCat no. 39. A Man, said to be Robert Can, Earl of Somerset (b.c.1587 d.1645), c.1620 \r\nEvans 4  \r\n\t \r\nOval 38 x  32 mm (irregular)  \r\n\t \r\nFeatures stippled and hatched in red with some dark brown, blue for the  shadows and touches of white in the eyes, on a warm carnation ground; hair  hatched in black over pale brown wash; collar and shirt modelled in white over  pale brown; robe in black; background floated wet-in-wet in lake; a gold  marginal strip (truncated); on vellum put down on pasteboard, painted brown on  the back.  \r\n\t \r\nCondition: Faded; somewhat scratched and rubbed; retouched with red in the  face.  \r\n\t \r\nSigned: Not signed.  \r\n\t \r\nFrame: An apparently nineteenth-century gold locket, the hanger removed, set  in a wood frame, turned and stained black.   \r\n\t \r\nProvenance: A B Willson, from whom purchased by the Hon. F H A Wallop in  1917; lent by him to theV&amp;A 1927-49, and the ownership transferred to Alan  Evans, 1933; by him bequeathed to the National Gallery, 1974; placed on  indeterminate loan at the V&amp;A, and acquired by by the V&amp;A by transfer February 1994.  \r\n\t \r\nWallop regarded this as autograph Peter Oliver but Long commented:' An old  miniature but not, I think, either by Isaac Oliver or by Peter Oliver\". (1) by the  time of the Christie's valuation of the Evans Collection (1969), the miniature was  listed as 'school of Oliver'.  \r\n\t \r\nThe hand is in fact quite skilled, probably of the type described here as 'studio'.  Peter Oliver worked somewhat in this style c.1620, but the original here is  certainly the portrait of Carr by Hoskins, of which there are (or were) other  versions in the Royal, Buccleuch and Rayne Collections.(2) The Buccleuch version  (3) is signed with the IH  monogram. The identification as Robert Carr, Earl of  Somerset, has not apparently been questioned and it is impressive that all four of  the miniatures have the same label.  \r\n\t \r\nRobert Carr, or in the original Scots spelling Ker or Kerr, was the younger son of  Sir Thomas Ker of Ferniehurst. He came to London as a page of James I and  rapidly became favourite en titre: knighted in December 1607; given on Sir  WaIter Raleigh's attainder the Sherborne estates in 1609; raised to the English  peerage as Viscount Rochester and admitted KG (1611); Earl of Somerset and  Treasurer of Scotland (1613) and Lord Chamberlain and Lord Keeper of the Privy  Seal (1614). Meanwhile, having fallen in love with the Countess of Essex,  procured the annulment of her marriage and married her in December 1613, he  became implicated in her attempt to revenge herself on Sir Thomas Over bury  for the alleged slander of her character. Numerous clumsy attempts at poisoning  him finally culminated in a lethal injection administered on the Countess's behalf  by an apothecary. The Countess was tried and found guilty, and her trial was  followed in 1615 by that of her husband, the prosecution being led by Francis  Bacon. Although their accomplices were executed, the Earl and Countess were  pardoned by the King, who remained stubbornly loyal despite these events, his  favourite's bad temper, and the beginning of the ascendancy of George Villiers.  The Somersets remained in the Tower until 1622 and lived fairly quietly until, in  1630, the Earl was prosecuted in the Court of Star Chamber for having earlier  written a letter advising James to rule without Parliament. He died in July 1645.  \r\n\t \r\n1 Undated MS note in the Wallop Loan Book. \r\n2 Photos V&amp;A: see also for the miniatures and for the confused iconography of Robert Kerr, or Ker or Carr: Piper 1963, p. 322; Strong 1969, vol.1, pp. 256-7. \r\n3 Kennedy 1917, p. 32.\r\n","historicalContext":"","briefDescription":"Portrait Miniature, Portrait Miniature of a man, said to be Robert Carr, Earl of Somerset, by John Hoskins, watercolour on vellum, ca.1620 [Once attributed to Isaac or Peter Oliver].","bibliographicReferences":[{"reference":{"text":"","id":""},"details":"","free":"Murdoch, John.  <u>Seventeenth-century English Miniatures in the collection of the Victoria and Albert Museum</u>. London: The Stationery Office, 1997."}],"production":"","productionType":{"text":"","id":""},"contentDescription":"","contentPlaces":[],"associatedPlaces":[],"contentPerson":[],"associatedPerson":[],"contentOrganisations":[],"associatedOrganisations":[],"contentPeople":[],"associatedPeople":[],"contentEvents":[],"associatedEvents":[],"contentOthers":[{"text":"man","id":"AAT25928"}],"contentConcepts":[],"contentLiteraryRefs":[],"galleryLabels":[],"partNumbers":["EVANS.4"],"accessionNumberNum":"4","accessionNumberPrefix":"EVANS","accessionYear":null,"otherNumbers":[],"copyNumber":"","aspects":["WHOLE"],"assets":[],"recordModificationDate":"2025-09-01","recordCreationDate":"2009-06-30","availableToBook":false}}