Portrait of a Gentleman 1658

Samuel Cooper, the celebrated English miniature painter, produced this ‘Portrait of a Gentleman’ in watercolor on ivory. In seventeenth-century England, portrait miniatures functioned as intimate objects, often exchanged between family members or lovers. They became fashionable at the Tudor court in the 1520s, and miniaturists held official positions at court, which goes to show the institutional power of art. Cooper’s gentleman, with his flowing locks and plain white collar, embodies the restrained elegance associated with the English elite. The work was made around 1655, during the interregnum period, when England was governed as a republic after the civil war. Historians look at dress and pose, and consult genealogical records to better understand the sitter’s identity and social standing. Ultimately, understanding this miniature means grasping its place within a web of social relations and artistic conventions that governed portraiture in the Stuart era.