PRODUCED to tie in with an exhibition of rare Irish and English miniatures at the National Gallery of Ireland, this catalogue covers some 130 works fully provenanced with literature and exhibitions from the gallery’s collection of miniatures, and charts the rivalry of artists painting in watercolour and enamel over two centuries, from the Court of Charles I to the Victorian era.
With the revival of interest in the miniature in about 1750, their quality and quantity improved. Reynolds called these mini-portraits the “Modest School”.
Dr Caffrey is an authority on miniatures and his catalogue includes a feature on new research on the collection, and a thematic section discusses the different types of miniature painting and explains the techniques used by Adam and Frederick Buck, Samuel Cooper, Charles Robertson and the Bone family.
Fascinating as a study in social history as well as an important catalogue on miniatures.
A window on social history too
Treasures To Hold: Irish and English Miniatures 1650-1850 from the National Gallery of Ireland Collection by Dr Paul Caffrey, published by the National Gallery of Ireland, Dublin. tel: 01 661 5133. email: artgall@eircom.net ISBN 090316275X £19.99.
