Endymion Porter (1587–1649)

The Artist: John Hoskins was the leading painter of portrait miniatures in England between the death of Nicholas Hilliard in 1619 and the rise to preeminence of his nephew and pupil Samuel Cooper (1608?–1672) in the 1640s. Hoskins began his career as a portrait painter in oils. So far only two documented paintings in this medium by him are known. They are head-and-shoulders portraits of Sir Hamon Le Strange of Hunstanton Hall, Norfolk, and his wife, Alice; her household account book records payments for them in 1617 (Prince Frederick Duleep Singh, Portraits in Norfolk Houses, Norwich, [1927], vol. 1, p. 316, no. 15 [Alice], pp. 317–18, no. 21 [Hamon]; Andrew Moore and Charlotte Crawley, Family & Friends: A Regional Survey of British Portraiture, London, 1992, pp. 84–86, nos. 18 and 19, pls. 55 and 56). It is not known who taught Hoskins the art of limning, but his earliest miniatures, seemingly from about 1615, show resemblances to those of both Nicholas Hilliard (1547–1619) and Isaac Oliver (born about 1565, died 1617). He was greatly patronized by Charles I (1600–1649) and his court; he was influenced at that time by Daniel Mytens (1590?–1648) and then by Van Dyck (1599–1641), who settled in England in 1632. The works of the 1620s and 1630s show a variety of styles, probably due to his employment of assistants, such as his nephews Alexander Cooper (1609–?1660) and Samuel Cooper and his son John Hoskins the Younger (1620/30?–after 1692). The older Hoskins died in relative poverty in 1665. John Hoskins the Younger is known to have practiced as a limner independently from 1655, but no convincing attempts to distinguish his work from his father's have yet been made.

The Miniature: This miniature, or a replica, was engraved in 1810 in mezzotint as a portrait of Endymion Porter; the engraving is lettered S.Cooper pinxt. R. Earlom sct. pub. S. Woodburn 1810 "from a beautiful Miniature in the Possession of Lady Sutton.” The engraver overlooked the miniature's signature; in fact, this portrait is a fine example of Hoskins's work of about 1630.

The inscription on the back of the frame records the erroneous identification of the sitter as George Villiers (1592–1628), first duke of Buckingham; the arms, however, are not his but those of a later creation of dukes of Buckingham. The correct identification of the sitter as Endymion Porter, recorded on the engraving, was reestablished by Oliver Millar (verbally, 1964, and in a letter, 1982) and is substantiated by comparison with accepted portraits of Porter, such as that by Mytens which shows him at thirty-nine in 1627 (National Portrait Gallery, London, no. 5492).

Endymion Porter (1587–1649) was a protégé of the duke of Buckingham, whose niece he married, and in 1623 was employed with Buckingham in the failed negotiations for the marriage of Charles I, then Prince of Wales, to the infanta of Spain. Porter took little part in politics but remained close to the young king Charles, serving as a groom of the bedchamber. He was an important patron of literature, was greatly admired as a connoisseur, and was among the first to bring knowledge of Renaissance art to England. He also brought Anthony van Dyck to the king's notice and was instrumental in the acquisition of Rinaldo and Armida (Baltimore Museum of Art), the first Van Dyck to enter the royal collection.

[2015; adapted from Reynolds and Baetjer 1996]

Inscription: Signed (lower left, in gold): H · [left edge trimmed; monogram probably read iH ·]

?Lady Sutton; ?earls of Shaftesbury; Mary Clark Thompson, New York and Canandaigua, N.Y. (until d. 1923)

New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Four Centuries of Miniature Painting," January 19–March 19, 1950, unnumbered cat. (p. 3, as "George Villiers, first Duke of Buckingham (1592–1628)").

New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "European Miniatures in The Metropolitan Museum of Art," November 5, 1996–January 5, 1997, no. 22.

New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "In Miniature," August 29–December 28, 2014, no catalogue.

John Murdoch. Letter. 1979, ascribes it to the Studio of Hoskins, after 1630, when he had a number of assistants, and suggests that it may be on gessoed vellum.

Oliver Millar. Letter to Gretchen Wold. December 21, 1982, confirms his identification of the sitter as Endymion Porter, noting that Villiers would have been depicted wearing the Order of the Garter and was younger at the time of his death than this man appears to be; finds the face very similar to other portraits of Porter; adds that the hair color is closer to Porter's than to Villiers's.

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, 12, 14, 78–79, no. 22, ill., state that this work or a copy after it was engraved in mezzotint in 1810 as a portrait of Porter by Samuel Cooper in the collection of Lady Sutton.

This gilt metal frame dates from the late nineteenth century. On its back is engraved George Villiers / First / Duke of Buckingham / BY Hoskins / Shaftesbury Colln.; this is surmounted by the arms of the dukes of Buckingham of the third creation (i.e., those of Grenville, Temple, Cobham, and Nugent).

[2015; adapted from Reynolds and Baetjer 1996]