Nicholas Hilliard and Portrait Miniatures

Nicholas Hilliard, the first Limner (Miniaturist) born in England.

Nicholas Hilliard was born in Exeter, Devon, in 1547. ( The same year that Edward VI ascended to the throne).

He was the son of Richard Hilliard and his wife Laurence Hilliard (nee Wall). Richard was a goldsmith of renown,  who eventually in 1562  was appointed sheriff of Exeter.

Arranged by his father, the young Nicholas Hilliard moved to Europe in 1553 with a wealthy protestant family from Exeter, "The Bodley Family".  He was only six years old. 

Richard, also a protestant, was a good friend of John Bodley, they were among many others, afraid of persecution due to the religious problems in England at the time of Mary Tudor reign, 1553-1558.

First of all the Bodley family lived in Wesel, North West Germany, moving later on to Frankfurt and in summer 1557 they made another move, this time to Geneva, Switzerland. ( Hilliard most probably learned to speak German and French).

In 1558 Elizabeth I became Queen and so the Bodley family and Hilliard were safe to return to England, Hilliard was then eleven years old.

Hilliard  was first trained together with his younger brother John as a goldsmith by their father Richard, then in 1562 they were apprentices in London  to a very wealthy man  that  was working for the Queen, and eventually became Chamberlain of the City of London, and a Prime  Warden of his Company, his name was  Robert Brandon.

After 7 years of training Hilliard became a Freeman of the Goldsmith Company, he was very skillful at making jewellery under Mr. Brandon's guidance. Hilliard was most probably introduced to the Queen by his future father in law, Mr. Robert Brandon, as in 1576 Hilliard married his beautiful daughter Alice.

Apart from being a goldsmith and jeweller Hilliard become  also a prominent artist ,  at the age of 13 he painted a self portrait, in 1565 at the age of 18 he executed a portrait of Mary Queen of Scots, he very early demonstrated  notable  skills at the Art of Limning . ( 16c-17c  word for miniature  painting).

The first miniature portrait that Hilliard painted of Queen Elizabeth I is dated 1572,  is housed at the National Gallery in London, and it is believe to be the earliest dated portrait of the Queen .

 Hilliard was 25 years old when he was officially appointed Royal Limner and Goldsmith to the Queen, he held this position for 30 years until the Queen died. At the age of 30 he had achieved great international reputation as a Limner.

In 1576 he married 22- year- old Alice Brandon, two months later Nicholas and Alice moved to France, probably commanded  by the Queen, with a commission to paint  a portrait of one of her prospective husbands, "the Duke d' Alencon" brother of king Henry III of France, who was at the time a candidate.

The young couple stayed in France for two years, Hilliard had the opportunity to get to know, and to paint some portraits of very interesting and important people at the French Court ,and indeed to study and admire the work of the great miniaturist Jean Clouet, who had recently passed away.

In 1578 the couple returned to England probably at the Queen's request, they settle in the city in a  house in Gutter Lane, it had only three bedrooms and a shop.  Hilliard's wife was pregnant at the time. Nicholas and Alice had 8 children in a matter of ten years, they all survived but one.

 To work for the Queen was a great honour and Hilliard was very famous, but money was little, in reality all his life he experienced economic difficulty, and it   probably didn't help that he was of a very generous nature and impulsive, he was a perfectionist in his highly detailed work , and above all he was avid for fame.

In 1617 he was briefly imprisoned in Ludgate prison, as he signed for a debt surety for a friend or relative, he was let down, and unfortunately he was not able to procure the amount of money needed.   

Hilliard taught the Art of Limning to his son Laurence, whom in 1613 took over his father's workshop in Gutter Lane. Hilliard also took on apprentices and pupils among them Isaac Oliver who joined his workshop in 1580. Eventually the two of  them  became great rivals.

In 1590 he took on the demanding project to design the Seal of Her Majesty the Queen, although it was apparently never used, eventually he designed a second Great Seal, which Queen Elizabeth used from 1586 until just before her death in 1603.

Hilliard wrote and published the Treatise regarding The Arte of Limning, this was the first such handbook to be written by an English author, he was not officially trained as a Limner,  he apparently studied the work of some artist   specially  Holbein and  Durer.

Following Queen Elizabeth's death, James I succeeded to the throne and he reappointed Nicholas Hilliard as The King's Limner.

There is controversy that perhaps Hilliard married twice, some records show that a lady called Susan married a Nicholas Hilliard in 1608, curiously Hilliard's  wife Alice did not died until 1611, and the name of Susan was not mention in Hilliard's will, this could perhaps indicate that she died before him, or indeed it could be just a coincidence of a lady who did married a different man, with the same name. However,  hidden by the frame in the miniature painting of his wife Alice, apparently there is an inscription saying that Alice nee Brandon was Hilliard's first wife.

Hilliard died in London on the 3rd of January of 1619 at the age of 72, he was buried on the 7th in his local parish church of Saint Martin's-in-the-Fields, he moved to this area out of the city and near the Court in 1613, to an address unknown .

 Hilliard  didn't have a lot, but in his will, made on Christmas Eve 1618, he left 20 shillings to the poor people of his parish church,  £10 to his sister Anne, £10 to his maid servant Elizabeth Deacon, and  the rest of his small state was left to his much loved son Laurence,  he spent 52 shillings on saying goodbye  to his father with an opulent funeral.

Thanks to Hilliard's insistent request to the king, Laurence become eventually after his father's death a Royal Limner to James I. Three years later, because of a supposed injury to his finger, (caused by a street assault) he resigned from his post at the Majesty Service. Interestingly he continued taking commissions and painting.

Hilliard tiny miniatures meticulously painted are a remembrance of Elizabethan times, and through his wonderful brush work and purity of colour, we can still admirer in our days the sophisticated hair styles, and the exquisite and elaborated costumes of this intriguing and fascinating faraway era.