Christian Friedrich Zincke, Portrait of a Viscount, 1727

Chicago:

Blythe Sobol, “Christian Friedrich Zincke, Portrait of a Viscount, 1727,” catalogue entry in Aimee Marcereau DeGalan, Blythe Sobol, and Maggie Keenan, The Starr Collection of Portrait Miniatures, 1500–1850: The Collections of the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, vol. 1, ed. Aimee Marcereau DeGalan (Kansas City, MO: Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, 2024), https://doi.org/10.37764/8322.5.2248.

MLA:

Sobol, Blythe. “Christian Friedrich Zincke, Portrait of a Viscount, 1727,” catalogue entry. Aimee Marcereau DeGalan, Blythe Sobol, and Maggie Keenan. The Starr Collection of Portrait Miniatures, 1500–1850: The Collections of the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, edited by Aimee Marcereau DeGalan, vol. 1, Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, 2024. doi: 10.37764/8322.5.2248.

See the artist’s biography in volume 4.

This enamel portrait of an unknown viscount by Christian Friedrich Zincke is most notable for its inscription, which reveals a deliberate—and indeed, successful—attempt to erase the subject’s identity. At some unknown date, likely during or soon after the sitter’s lifetime, someone scratched out any recognizable elements of his name inscribed on the contra enamel. Only the titles “Lord” and “Viscount” remain visible, along with the artist’s signature. Names were sometimes removed prior to sales to protect family identities.

This miniature is otherwise quite typical for Zincke’s practice. By the mid-1720s, he was a favorite of aristocratic sitters, counting the royal family among his many patrons. Deluged by clients, Zincke’s large workshop was not large enough to meet the demand for his minute and vividly colored likenesses. He began to suffer from eyestrain as a result, and many of his less important commissions, by necessity, became somewhat formulaic.¹

Nonetheless, this miniature is beautifully painted. Zincke skillfully rendered varying colors and textures, from the multiplicity of whites that appear in the sitter’s stiffly curled wig and delicate lace cravat, picked out in tiny dots and swirls, to the sheen and plush texture of velvet in his favored shade of cerulean blue. Zincke’s trademark “measles,” a stippling technique of tiny red dots, are generously employed across the viscount’s rosy face.² Although the sitter’s name remains lost to us, the inscription’s selective defacement retained his aristocratic titles, a reminder that, for many of Zincke’s patrons and collectors, aristocratic birth was prized above all.

Notes

1. Tabitha Barber, “Zincke, Christian Friederich (b. Dresden, 1683­–5; d. London, March 24, 1767),” Grove Art Online, 2003, https://doi.org/10.1093/gao/9781884446054.article.T093548.

2. Sarah Coffin and Bodo Hofstetter, Portrait Miniatures in Enamel: The Gilbert Collection (London: Bloomsbury, 2000), 33.

Possibly Major John McLean Griffin (1870–1957), Bourn Hall, Cambridge, by 1926 [1];

Possibly purchased at his sale, Objects of Vertu, Sotheby’s, London, May 12, 1926, lot 177, as A Man, by Harry Seal (1873–1948), Ullesthorpe House, Leicestershire, 1926–1948 [2];

Possibly purchased from his posthumous sale, The Choice Collection of Portrait Miniatures, formed by the late Harry Seal, Esq., Christie’s, London, February 16, 1949, lot 121, as A Gentleman, by “Landsberg,” 1949 [3];

Mr. John W. (1905–2000) and Mrs. Martha Jane (1906–2011) Starr, Kansas City, MO, by 1958 [4];

Their gift to The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, MO, 1958.

Notes

[1] Major McLean Griffin’s surname is sometimes alternately spelled “Maclean Griffin” and “McClean Griffin.” His name is inscribed as “Major John McLean Griffin” on his tombstone in St. Helena and St. Mary Churchyard, Bourn, Cambridge.

[2] The lot description from Major Griffin’s sale says, “An enamel miniature, of a man, by C. F. Zincke, head and shoulders, three-quarters to the left, in blue coat and white cravat, oval, 1.5 in.” Note that the dimensions do not match exactly, but with sales staff working quickly to catalogue objects of a tiny size, they were not always precise.

[3] The lot description from Mr. Seal’s sale says, “A Gentleman, by C. F. Zincke / Three-quarter face to the right, in blue coat, white cravat and powdered wig / Oval – 1 1/2 in. high / From the collection of Major J. M. Griffin, 1926.” Several miniatures acquired by the Starrs derived from Major Griffin and Mr. Seal.

[4] It is possible that the Starrs acquired this from Landsberg or another dealer after the conclusion of the Seal sale, from which they had acquired several miniatures.

The Starr Foundation Collection of Miniatures, The Royal Ontario Museum, Toronto, Canada, December 8, 1972–January 14, 1973, no cat., no. 30, as Unknown Man.

Ross E. Taggart, The Starr Collection of Miniatures in the William Rockhill Nelson Gallery (Kansas City, MO: Nelson Gallery-Atkins Museum, 1971), no. 30, p. 15, (repro.), as Unknown Man.