{"meta":{"version":"2.1","_links":{"self":{"href":"https://api.vam.ac.uk/v2/object/O75007"},"collection_page":{"href":"https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O75007/"}},"images":{"_primary_thumbnail":"https://framemark.vam.ac.uk/collections/2006BE9729/full/!100,100/0/default.jpg","_iiif_image":"https://framemark.vam.ac.uk/collections/2006BE9729/","_alt_iiif_image":[],"imageResolution":"high","_images_meta":[{"assetRef":"2006BE9729","copyright":"©Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2006AP5784","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false}]},"see_also":{"_iiif_pres":"https://iiif.vam.ac.uk/collections/O75007/manifest.json","_alt_iiif_pres":[]}},"record":{"systemNumber":"O75007","accessionNumber":"448-1892","objectType":"Portrait miniature","titles":[{"title":"An Unknown Woman","type":"generic title"}],"summaryDescription":"This miniature painting is one of a group of 17th-century unfinished miniatures on tablets of vellum originally interleaved into the blank pages of a leather-bound book traditionally called ‘Samuel Cooper's Pocket Book’. This book was acquired by the V&A in 1892, when all the works were believed to be by Samuel Cooper. It is now agreed that four are by Cooper and the other ten, except one, are by Susannah Penelope Rosse. These are self-portraits and portraits of family and neighbours. Like most artists, Cooper left a number of unfinished miniatures in his studio when he died. These were eagerly sought after by art collectors such as King Charles II and the Florentine Cosimo III, who admired the direct, graphic quality of these works by such an internationally renowned artist. It is possible that this ‘Pocket Book’ actually belonged to Susannah Rosse and her husband, Michael Rosse, a wealthy jeweller. Susannah Rosse was the daughter of Cooper's fellow miniaturist, Richard Gibson, and she grew up in London only a few streets from Cooper’s house. She admired Cooper's work, and the sale of Michael Rosse's collection of art in 1723, over 20 years after Susannah's death, included original works by Cooper and also acknowledged copies of Cooper by Mrs Rosse. Examples such as this, one of Cooper's unfinished works, would have allowed Susannah Rosse to study closely Cooper's technique.","physicalDescription":"Unfinished portrait of a woman, head and shoulders, facing to left.  Features delicately hatched in brown and sanguine, with some pale opaque grey for the shadow round the eyes and a darker grey for the eyeballs, on a very pale carnation ground; hair washed and slightly hatched in brown and grey over a paler initial wash; a slight pink wash over the shoulder and bosom; on vellum put down on a leaf from a table-book. ","artistMakerPerson":[{"name":{"text":"Cooper, Samuel","id":"A8275"},"association":{"text":"artist","id":"AAT25103"},"note":""}],"artistMakerOrganisations":[],"artistMakerPeople":[],"materials":[{"text":"watercolour","id":"AAT15045"},{"text":"vellum","id":"x42751"}],"techniques":[{"text":"painting","id":"AAT54216"}],"materialsAndTechniques":"Watercolour on vellum put down on a leaf from a table-book","categories":[{"text":"Portraits","id":"THES48906"},{"text":"Paintings","id":"THES48917"}],"styles":[{"text":"Restoration","id":"AAT113602"},{"text":"Stuart","id":"AAT21037"},{"text":"English School","id":"x44855"}],"collectionCode":{"text":"PDP","id":"THES48595"},"images":["2006BE9729","2006AP5784"],"imageResolution":"high","galleryLocations":[{"current":{"text":"LVLF","id":"THES49656"},"free":"","case":"RMC","shelf":"10","box":"C"}],"partTypes":[[{"text":"miniature","id":"AAT33936"}]],"contentWarnings":[{"apprise":"","note":""}],"placesOfOrigin":[{"place":{"text":"England","id":"x28826"},"association":{"text":"painted","id":"x30138"},"note":""}],"productionDates":[{"date":{"text":"1662-1665","earliest":"1662-01-01","latest":"1665-12-31"},"association":{"text":"painted","id":"x30138"},"note":""}],"associatedObjects":[],"creditLine":"","dimensions":[{"dimension":"Height","value":"93","unit":"mm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"sheet","note":""},{"dimension":"Width","value":"70","unit":"mm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"sheet","note":""},{"dimension":"Height","value":"76","unit":"mm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"drawn oval","note":""},{"dimension":"Width","value":"63","unit":"mm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"drawn oval","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":[{"content":"'Cooper'","inscriber":{"name":{"text":"","id":""},"association":{"text":"","id":""}},"date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"description":"","interpretation":"","language":"","medium":"","method":"","position":"","script":"","translation":"","transliteration":"","type":"","note":"Inscribed on the back in graphite"},{"content":"'Cath'e of Braganza'","inscriber":{"name":{"text":"","id":""},"association":{"text":"","id":""}},"date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"description":"","interpretation":"","language":"","medium":"","method":"","position":"","script":"","translation":"","transliteration":"","type":"","note":"Also inscribed, perhaps in a later hand"}],"objectHistory":"<u>Provenance</u>\nPresumably acquired from Cooper's estate by the Rosses, or perhaps by Priestman (see Rosse, Cat. No. 143) and perhaps in the Michael Rosse sale, 2 April 1 723; eventually purchased by Edwin [Durning] Lawrence before 1862, and sold by him to the Museum for £525 in 1892. ","historicalContext":"","briefDescription":"Portrait miniature, unfinished, of an unknown woman.  Watercolour on vellum by Samuel Cooper.","bibliographicReferences":[{"reference":{"text":"","id":""},"details":"","free":"Murdoch, John.  <u>Seventeenth-century English Miniatures in the Collection of the Victoria & Albert Museum</u>, London: The Stationery Office in association with the Victoria & Albert Museum, 1997.\n\nCat. 89, p.165. Part Citation:\n<b>Exhibited:</b> As for Cat. No. 88 [South Kensington 1862, no. 2531 (the set as Cooper); BFAC 1889, p. 133, case XLI, nos 1-15 (Cooper);  V&amp;A 1983, unnumbered]; and by itself, New Haven etc. 1981-2, no. 48. \n\n<b>Literature:</b> As for Cat. No. 88 [Williamson 1904, vol. I, pp. 51-2 (on the set, reproducing four by Rosse); Foster 1898, p. 40; Foster  1903, vol. I, p. 53 (tentatively attributing the set to Flatman); Foster 1908, p. 184 (as attributed to Cooper, but  Foster would give some to Dixon; he now states that some give the poorer ones to Flatman); Catalogue of  Miniatures , 1908, pp. 9-10 (as formerly attributed to Cooper); Goulding 1914-15, p. 49 (as Rosse); Long 1929, p. 377 (Rosse); Long 1930, pp. 65-6 (as by Rosse); Reynolds 1952, pp. 81-2 (Rosse); Foskett 1963, pp. 77-8; Foskett  1972, vol I, p. 481 (Rosse); Foskett 1974, p. 91 (Rosse); Reynolds 1975, specifically p. 9, no. 1, pl. 13; Foskett  1979, pp. 125-6 (following Reynolds 1975); Summary Catalogue , 1981, p. 9 (Cooper); V J Murrell, 'The Craft of the  Miniaturist' , Murdoch 1981, p. 12, fig. 14 (as Cooper); V J Murrell, 'Technique and Practice', Strong 1983, p. 28, no.  1; Reynolds 1988, p. 78 and specifically pp. 59 and 78]; and by itself, Foster 1903, vol. I, pl. XXVIII, no. 48 (as by Cooper, though contradicted in the text, p. 53); Reynolds 1975, p. 10, no. 2, p. 14; Summary Catalogue, 1981, p. 9; Murdoch 1981, col. pl. 23c. \r\n\r\nThe 'relatively recent' identification as Catherine of Braganza was rejected by Reynolds (see above) on the advice of Sir Oliver Millar; in fact this miniature had never been properly accepted into the iconography of the Queen, being omitted from Piper 1963 and from all NPG records. The Cooper image of Catherine, one of the 'Windsor sketches', is held to dispose of this conclusively as a likeness. \n\nThe sitter nevertheless wears the Braganza curls, and the date is therefore after Catherine's arrival in England, 13 May 1662, and probably before 1665. If not Catherine herself, the sitter is likely to have been one of the household.”\r\n"}],"production":"","productionType":{"text":"Unique","id":"THES48864"},"contentDescription":"Unfinsihed portrait of a woman, facing to left and wearing a necklace.","contentPlaces":[],"associatedPlaces":[],"contentPerson":[],"associatedPerson":[],"contentOrganisations":[],"associatedOrganisations":[],"contentPeople":[],"associatedPeople":[],"contentEvents":[],"associatedEvents":[],"contentOthers":[{"text":"woman","id":"AAT25943"}],"contentConcepts":[],"contentLiteraryRefs":[],"galleryLabels":[],"partNumbers":["448-1892"],"accessionNumberNum":"448","accessionNumberPrefix":"","accessionYear":1892,"otherNumbers":[],"copyNumber":"","aspects":["WHOLE"],"assets":["2019LP0577","2019LR6685","2019LW9023"],"recordModificationDate":"2025-09-18","recordCreationDate":"2003-02-25","availableToBook":false}}