{
"data": {
"id": 119036,
"accession_number": "1940.1221",
"share_license_status": "CC0",
"tombstone": "Portrait of a Man, c. 1735. Christian Friedrich Zincke (German, 1683/85\u20131767). Enamel on copper in a gold frame with a blue glass and hair reverse; framed: 5.1 x 4.3 cm (2 x 1 11/16 in.); unframed: 4.5 x 3.6 cm (1 3/4 x 1 7/16 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, The Edward B. Greene Collection, 1940.1221",
"current_location": "203B British Painting and Decorative Arts",
"title": "Portrait of a Man",
"creation_date": "c. 1735",
"creation_date_earliest": 1730,
"creation_date_latest": 1737,
"artists_tags": [
"male"
],
"culture": [
"England, 18th century"
],
"technique": "enamel on copper in a gold frame with a blue glass and hair reverse",
"support_materials": [],
"department": "European Painting and Sculpture",
"collection": "P - British before 1800",
"type": "Portrait Miniature",
"measurements": "Framed: 5.1 x 4.3 cm (2 x 1 11/16 in.); Unframed: 4.5 x 3.6 cm (1 3/4 x 1 7/16 in.)",
"dimensions": {
"framed": {
"height": 0.051,
"height_inch": 2,
"height_inch_fraction": 0.0,
"width": 0.043,
"width_inch": 1,
"width_inch_fraction": 0.6875
},
"unframed": {
"height": 0.045,
"height_inch": 1,
"height_inch_fraction": 0.75,
"width": 0.036,
"width_inch": 1,
"width_inch_fraction": 0.4375
}
},
"state_of_the_work": null,
"edition_of_the_work": null,
"copyright": null,
"inscriptions": [],
"exhibitions": {
"current": [
{
"id": 311503,
"title": "Intimate Images: Portrait Miniatures from Europe and America",
"description": "Intimate Images: Portrait Miniatures from Europe and America. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (March 26-October 17, 1993).",
"opening_date": "1993-03-26T04:00:00"
},
{
"id": 202388,
"title": "Disembodied: Portrait Minatures and their Contemporary Relatives",
"description": "Disembodied: Portrait Minatures and their Contemporary Relatives. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (November 10, 2013-February 16, 2014).",
"opening_date": "2013-11-10T00:00:00"
}
],
"legacy": [
{
"description": "Main European Rotation (Gallery 202), The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (January 30, 2012 - July 23, 2012). [Verso on display]",
"opening_date": "2012-01-30T00:00:00"
},
{
"description": "Main European Rotation (Gallery 202), The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (July 23, 2013 - May 20, 2014).",
"opening_date": "2013-07-23T00:00:00"
}
]
},
"provenance": [
{
"description": "William Edward Hurcomb, London, England",
"citations": [],
"footnotes": null,
"date": "By 1929",
"sortorder": null
},
{
"description": "(S. J. Phillips, London, England, sold to Edward B. Greene)",
"citations": [],
"footnotes": null,
"date": "-1930",
"sortorder": 2
},
{
"description": "Edward B. Greene (1878-1957), Cleveland, OH, gifted to the Cleveland Museum of Art",
"citations": [],
"footnotes": null,
"date": "1930-1940",
"sortorder": 3
},
{
"description": "The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH",
"citations": [],
"footnotes": null,
"date": "1940-",
"sortorder": 4
}
],
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"former_accession_numbers": [],
"did_you_know": "Unlike fragile portrait miniatures painted in watercolor on vellum or ivory, which are prone to cracking, fading, and flaking, enamels are resilient, impervious to the effects of light, and retain their striking original colors over time.",
"early_education_description": null,
"artlens_description": null,
"description": "The unknown sitter's shoulders are turned to the right, and he is painted almost full face. He wears a bright blue velvet coat with covered buttons, deep yellow embroidered waistcoat, and white stock collar with double lace frill down the front. His powdered wig falls to his shoulders. He has gray eyes and is clean shaven with rosy cheeks, and the background is dark brown. The miniature is set in a gold locket-style frame. The back displays a lock of dark brown hair inside a border of bright blue foiled glass\u2014a popular framing style for miniatures in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries and, therefore, surely a later addition.
Since the publication of the Greene collection catalogue in 1951, the attribution of this miniature has been disputed, with experts alternately suggesting Christian Friedrich Zincke and possibly Charles Boit (1663\u20131727). The evidence in favor of Zincke, however, is far stronger than it is for Boit, who had not worked in England for over a decade before his death in 1727, several years before the most plausible date for this portrait. Among Zincke\u2019s hallmarks are lips painted two different colors\u2014here, purplish pink on top and orange on the bottom\u2014a practice that became increasingly pronounced later in his career. This portrait also exhibits Zincke\u2019s characteristic treatment of the eyes during this period: he framed the eyes with individually painted black dots to represent eyelashes. The counter-enamel is not inscribed but has the smooth appearance of the counter-enamels customarily associated with Zincke\u2019s later
career.
A miniature identical in all but the facial features appeared at Christie\u2019s, London, in 2004. Zincke often used this costume consisting of a blue (or sometimes brown) velvet jacket with covered buttons, yellow embroidered waistcoat, and frilled lace cravat. An example that sold at Christie\u2019s in 1996 is signed and dated 1734. Another closely related and unsigned example by Zincke in the Metropolitan Museum of Art has been dated to c. 1745, indicating when this attire was frequently employed by Zincke\u2019s studio.",
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"citations": [
{
"citation": "Cleveland Museum of Art. Portrait Miniatures; The Edward B. Greene Collection. Cleveland: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1951.",
"page_number": "Mentioned and reproduced; p. 32, no. 50, pl. IV",
"url": "https://archive.org/details/PortraitMiniatures/page/n51"
},
{
"citation": "Korkow, Cory, and Jon L. Seydl. British Portrait Miniatures: The Cleveland Museum of Art. 2013.",
"page_number": "Cat. no. 23, pp. 120-122",
"url": ""
}
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"creditline": "The Edward B. Greene Collection",
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"id": 3697,
"description": "Christian Friedrich Zincke (German, 1683/85\u20131767)",
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"role": "artist",
"biography": "Christian Friedrich Zincke was born in Dresden, Germany, where he apprenticed with his goldsmith father.1 At the invitation of the master enamelist Charles Boit (1663\u20131727), Zincke traveled to England in 1706, became Boit\u2019s pupil, and later established the most successful enamel-painting studio in England. Several generations of British monarchs patronized Zincke, including Queen Anne, King George I, and particularly King George II, a great lover of enamels.
During the early years of his practice, Zincke charged under 7 guineas for a portrait, and although inflation remained steady, he was able to command up to 30 guineas by the end of his career. This substantial increase not only indicates the artist\u2019s rise in popularity, but it also speaks to his deteriorating vision, as the larger fees were implemented to
limit the number of commissions taxing Zincke\u2019s failing eyesight, which forced him to give up painting professionally in the mid-1740s.
The enameling techniques utilized in portrait miniatures were developed during the early seventeenth century, but the first half of the eighteenth century was the heyday of enamel painting in Britain. The art form was prized for its resilience and brilliant colors, though the complicated and labor-intensive process of individually firing multiple layers of colored metal oxide made it more difficult to create a faithful likeness. Zincke executed portraits from life as well as copied
older portraits in oil from artists including Peter Lely (1618\u20131680) and Godfrey Kneller (1646\u20131723). Always willing to flatter his sitters, Zincke was known to make some of his sitters appear more youthful and to work from earlier portraits. In spite of the fact that many miniatures by Zincke are signed on the counter-enamel, attribution is complicated by the fact that he kept an industrious studio populated with students and assistants of varying talents. He began to teach over a decade after his eyesight failed, and among his better-known students were William Prewett (active 1733\u2013c. 1750) and Jeremias Majer (1735\u20131789), whose work is also in the collection of the Cleveland Museum of Art.",
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"birth_year": "1683",
"death_year": "1767",
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"legal_status": "accessioned",
"accession_date": "1940-12-30T00:00:00",
"sortable_date": 1730,
"date_added_to_oa": null,
"date_text": "c. 1735",
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"alternate_titles": [
"Man in Blue Coat"
],
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"updated_at": "2026-05-29 06:09:25.253000"
}
}