John Churchill (1650–1722), First Duke of Marlborough

Richter was born in Stockholm and went to England in 1702, working there for the rest of his life. His countrymen the portrait painter Michael Dahl (1656–1743) and the enamelist Charles Boit (1662–1727) were in England at the same time. Many of Richter's miniatures are copies after Samuel Cooper (1608?–1672), Godfrey Kneller (1646–1723), Dahl, and other portraitists. He was the younger brother of David Richter the Younger (1664–1741), who became miniature painter to the Swedish court on the death of Elias Brenner (1647–1717).

Although the back of the frame is engraved John / Duke of Marlborough / By / B. LENS, this miniature is not by Bernard Lens (1682–1740) but is instead an autograph replica of Richter's miniature of 1714 in the Buccleuch collection. (For that version, signed and dated on the reverse 1714, see the following: H. A. Kennedy, Early English Portrait Miniatures in the Collection ofthe Duke of Buccleuch, London, 1917, pl. LXI; Wilhelm Nisser, Michael Dahl and the Contemporary Swedish School of Painting in England, Uppsala, 1927, cat. p. 137, no. 11; Leo R. Schidlof, The Miniature in Europe, Graz, 1964, vol. 2, p. 676; Daphne Foskett, A Dictionary of British Miniature Painters, New York, 1972, vol. 1, p. 468, vol. 2, p. 83, pl. 289, fig. 724.) Another miniature portrait of Marlborough by Richter, depicting the sitter wearing the star and ribbon of the Garter, was sold from the collection of John Quicke at Christie's, London, July 7, 1905, no. 6.

John Churchill (1650–1722), first duke of Marlborough, achieved a number of victories against the forces of Louis XIV during the War of the Spanish Succession. The palace designed by Sir John Vanbrugh and built for him at public expense was named Blenheim after the battle of 1704 which resulted in the most decisive of those victories. He was made a knight of the Garter in 1702.

[2015; adapted from Reynolds and Baetjer 1996]

Mary Clark Thompson, New York and Canandaigua, N.Y. (until d. 1923)

New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "European Miniatures in The Metropolitan Museum of Art," November 5, 1996–January 5, 1997, no. 38.

Graham Reynolds with the assistance of Katharine Baetjer. European Miniatures in The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Exh. cat., The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, 1996, pp. 10, 87, 126, no. 38, ill., state that it is not by Lens, as indicated in the inscription on the frame, but an autograph replica of the Buccleuch portrait by Richter.

The back of the elaborate early-twentieth-century gilt metal frame is ornamented with military trophies. The central cartouche is engraved John / Duke of Marlborough / By / B. LENS. Inscribed inside the frame is Felix Jo[?uberg] / 1904 in scratched letters.

[2015; adapted from Reynolds and Baetjer 1996]