Elizabeth I, c.1565 (w/c on vellum laid on playing card)

Elizabeth I (1533-1603) This miniature was described when in the collection of Charles I by his Surveyor of Pictures, Abraham van der Doort: 'done upon the right light in a white Ivory Box wthout a Christall a Certaine Ladies Picture in her haire a gold bone lace little ruff. and black habbitt lined with white furr wth goulden Tissue sleeves wth one hand over another supposed to have bin - Queene Elizabeth before shee came to the Crowne' and, in the margin, 'don by an unknowne hand. Supposed to be don for Queen Eliz: before she came to the Crowne'. The image can be confirmed as Elizabeth I with reference to another in the Royal Collection (RCIN 420944) which clearly shows the same sitter. Both miniatures were ascribed in 2011 by Graham Reynolds to Nicholas Hilliard ('New Light on Nicholas Hilliard', British Art Journal, Vol. XII, No. 2, pp. 19-21). Reynolds included them in a group of nine early works painted by Hilliard at the outset of his career. Both works were examined under the microscope in 2018 by a panel of specialists when it was found that the painting of the eyes was similar and that the costumes had been painted using similar pigments and techniques such as the curled strokes visible in the ruffs. It was concluded, however, that although both works were possibly by the same hand, the artist, working in the 1560s, was not Nicholas Hilliard. This work shares similarities with a number of works which have been associated with the artist Levina Teerlinc, including Catherine Grey, Countess of Hertford (V&A P-10-1979) and Catherine Grey, Countess of Hertford with her son (private collection) but the attribution of those works remains, for now, unproven.