id: 127232 accession number: 1949.549 share license status: CC0 url: https://clevelandart.org/art/1949.549 updated: 2023-03-08 14:59:13.233000 Portrait of John Churchill, 1st Duke of Marlborough, 1715. Christian Friedrich Zincke (German, 1683/85–1767). Enamel on copper in a gilt metal frame; framed: 6.4 x 5.1 cm (2 1/2 x 2 in.); sight: 5.9 x 4.8 cm (2 5/16 x 1 7/8 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, The Edward B. Greene Collection 1949.549 title: Portrait of John Churchill, 1st Duke of Marlborough title in original language: series: series in original language: creation date: 1715 creation date earliest: 1715 creation date latest: 1715 current location: creditline: The Edward B. Greene Collection copyright: --- culture: England, 18th century technique: enamel on copper in a gilt metal frame department: European Painting and Sculpture collection: P - British before 1800 type: Portrait Miniature find spot: catalogue raisonne: --- CREATORS * Christian Friedrich Zincke (German, 1683/85–1767) - artist 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 (1663–1727), Zincke traveled to England in 1706, became Boit’s 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’s 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’s 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 (1618–1680) and Godfrey Kneller (1646–1723). 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–c. 1750) and Jeremias Majer (1735–1789), whose work is also in the collection of the Cleveland Museum of Art. --- measurements: Framed: 6.4 x 5.1 cm (2 1/2 x 2 in.); Sight: 5.9 x 4.8 cm (2 5/16 x 1 7/8 in.) state of the work: edition of the work: support materials: inscriptions: inscription: signed on back: CF Zincke fecit/ 1715. [CF in monorgram]. translation: remark: --- CURRENT EXHIBITIONS title: Intimate Images: Portrait Miniatures from Europe and America opening date: 1993-03-26T04:00:00 Intimate Images: Portrait Miniatures from Europe and America. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (March 26-October 17, 1993). title: Disembodied: Portrait Minatures and their Contemporary Relatives opening date: 2013-11-10T00:00:00 Disembodied: Portrait Minatures and their Contemporary Relatives. The Cleveland Museum of Art (organizer) (November 10, 2013-February 16, 2014). --- LEGACY EXHIBITIONS * Main Gallery Rotation (Gallery 202), The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (June 20, 2008 - September 22, 2008). * Main European Rotation (Gallery 202), The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (July 23, 2013 - May 20, 2014). --- PROVENANCE Nyberg, London date: footnotes: citations: (Leo Schidlof (1886-1966), London. England) date: -1949 footnotes: citations: Edward B. Greene (1878-1957), Cleveland, OH, gifted to the Cleveland Museum of Art date: 1949 footnotes: citations: The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH date: 1949- footnotes: citations: --- fun fact: Although miniatures are often regarded as a private art form exchanged between loved ones, the nature of this enamel was likely political. digital description: 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. Partly for this reason enamel was considered ideal for reproducing famous paintings and treasured portraits in a reduced and luminous form. The complicated and labor-intensive process of enameling required the artist to fire numerous layers of colored metal oxide at different temperatures, which made it difficult to produce a faithful portrait likeness, though masters of the medium were able create portraits of remarkable subtlety imbued with the sitter's personality. The heyday of enamel painting was the late 1600s and early 1700s. Among the enamel specialists was Zincke, who worked in England where he was patronized by Queen Anne, King George I, and King George II. wall description: John Churchill (1650–1722) is turned slightly to the left and looks directly at the viewer. He has a cleft chin and brown eyes and wears a light brown, curly wig that falls past his shoulders and down his back. He is dressed in armor, a high white collar with a red ruffled border, and a bright blue cloak that covers his left shoulder. The background is brownish gray. The counter-enamel has the rough, mottled appearance characteristic of the first part of Christian Friedrich Zincke’s career and is inscribed in elegant script: “CF Zincke fecit / 1715.”
Churchill is among the greatest military commanders in British history. He fought for King William III of Orange during the overthrow of Churchill’s former patron King James II. He was created the 1st Duke of Marlborough in 1702 by Queen Anne. Churchill was distinguished in numerous military campaigns, including the Battle of Blenheim in 1704, helping to defeat the Franco-Bavarian army during the War of the Spanish Succession. Subsequent disfavor incurred by Churchill and his wife, Sarah, at court finally resulted in self-imposed exile on the Continent in late 1712. He returned in 1714 when the Hanoverian king George I acceded to the throne.
This enamel is an extremely fine example of Zincke’s work, painted at the height of his career in 1715, the year after his debtplagued master, Charles Boit (1663–1727), was forced to leave England for France. Boit departed leaving unfinished his demanding 1704 commission for a large enamel commemorating the Battle of Blenheim, but he had completed an enamel portrait of Churchill with the battle depicted in the background about 1705, around the time
Zincke began working in Boit’s studio. Zincke executed several portraits of Churchill. A version in the Victoria and Albert Museum is dated c. 1710 and depicts the duke with his cleft chin less pronounced and wearing the blue cape and collar of the Order of the Garter.
In 1714—the same year Churchill returned to London from exile—Christian Richter (1678–1732) painted the original version of Zincke’s portrait. Richter, a Swedish painter who immigrated to London in 1702, was associated with Boit and was best known for painting miniatures in watercolor after large-scale portraits by artists such as Peter Lely (1618–1680) and Michael Dahl (1656/59–1743). Since he rarely painted sitters from life, the possibility remains that
Zincke’s enamel is after a full-scale oil painting by another artist not yet discovered. One version by Richter, painted in watercolor on vellum, is in the Metropolitan Museum of Art. This portrait is itself an autograph replica of one in the collection of the Duke of Buccleuch that is signed and dated 1714. Churchill would have been 64 years old at this date. While the portrait seems to depict a much younger man at the height of physical and intellectual prowess, the light-colored wig corresponds to those worn by the duke during this period, unlike the darker brown wigs in which he is usually depicted in portraits before 1700. The decision to be portrayed in armor reveals how the duke wished to be regarded during this period of the Hanoverian dynasty’s assent: a soldier poised to serve his king. By 1714 armorial portraits were retardataire and primarily adopted by monarchs.
The existence of multiple versions of this formidable, agedefying portrait suggests that the strategic gift of this enamel might have been one of the many favor-currying devices employed by a man whose cold-blooded ambition and boundless self-promotion enabled him to retain positions of power and influence through the pitfalls of service to six English monarchs in succession. --- RELATED WORKS --- CITATIONS 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. 49, pl. IV url: https://archive.org/details/PortraitMiniatures/page/n51 Carlsen, G. Robert. Western Literature; Themes and Writers; Teacher's Resources Guide. St. Louis: Webster Division, McGraw-Hill, 1967. page number: p. 442 url: Coffin, Sarah, and Bodo Hofstetter. Portrait Miniatures in Enamel: The Gilbert Collection. London: Philip Wilson in association with the Gilbert Collection, 2000. page number: p. 116 url: Korkow, Cory, and Dario Robleto. Disembodied: Portrait Miniatures and Their Contemporary Relatives. 2013. page number: Mentioned: p. 86 url: Korkow, Cory, and Jon L. Seydl. British Portrait Miniatures: The Cleveland Museum of Art. 2013. page number: Cat. no. 22, pp. 117-119 url: --- IMAGES web: https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1949.549/1949.549_web.jpg print: https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1949.549/1949.549_print.jpg full: https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1949.549/1949.549_full.tif