Portrait Miniatures

A Portrait miniature is a very small and portable portrait painting usually painted in watercolour, enamel of gouache.

The techniques used developed from the painting of illuminated manuscripts and became popular amongst the upper classes of 16th century England and France and went on to spread across Europe, particularly from the mid 1700s onwards.

The first miniatures were painted on stretched vellum using watercolours. During the second half of the 17th century painting in vitreous enamel on copper became popular, particularly in France, although watercolours tended to remain the most usual medium used throughout the 18th Century.

Their popularity was probably due to them enabling people to see what others looked like, particularly useful in the marriage market, with the famous story of Henry VIII of England being very disappointed in 1540 with the appearance of Anne of Cleves, feeling mislead by her miniature portrait painted by Hans Holbein the Younger. Portraits were also carried by soldiers and sailors of their loved ones and very small portrait miniatures (e.g. 40mm x 30mm) were produced as covers for snuff boxes or as jewellery or personal momentos.

The practice died out with the invention of daguerreotypes in 1839 and the use of other, less expensive photographic techniques, from the 1860s onwards.