Painting of the Day: "A Man, Perhaps Sir John Wildman," 1647

The Victoria & Albert Museum

This miniature of watercolor on ivory is still in its original Seventeenth-century blue enameled gold locket. The subject closely resembled an etching of a man from 1653 by the Bohemian Wenceslaus Hollar, which is said to depict Sir John Wildman—known as one of the men involved in trying and condemning to death King Charles I.

The portrait is signed “IH” for John Hoskins, however, this could refer to Hoskins or his son since both men signed their miniatures identically. Some believe that this miniature is the work of Hoskins the Younger because it is like others in a group of miniatures which are apparently by one, steadier hand. Regardless, we know that it came from the Hoskins workshop.