Louisa Hollandina, Princess Palatine (1622-1709) c. 1651
Watercolour on vellum laid on card with a gessoed back | 6.4 x 5.3 cm (support, canvas/panel/stretcher external) | RCIN 420691
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Nathaniel Thach's family originated from Suffolk, but settled in the parish of St Martin-in-the-Fields, London. Thach's uncle, John Cradock, father of the artist Mary Beale, was an amateur miniaturist and left to Thach all his prepared vellum rounds in a will dated 1644, in which Thach was already described as 'late of London'. Thach appears to have spent his working career abroad, presumably at The Hague, as all but one of his surviving miniatures represent members of the family and circle of the exiled King and Queen of Bohemia. The Royal Collection holds a group of twelve such miniatures, most of which are copies of existing portraits and can be dated to c. 1650. The present miniature has been identified as Louisa Hollandina, Princess Palatine, second daughter of Frederick V and Elizabeth, Queen of Bohemia and is based on a portrait at Ashdown House (National Trust); another copy attributed to Thach is in the Musée Carnavalet, Paris. Louisa Hollandina, Princess Palatine, converted to Catholicism and became Abbess of Maubisson, near Pontoise. She was an amateur artist and pupil of Gerrit van Honthorst, who worked extensively for the King and Queen of Bohemia. Signed indistinctly on the left: 'NTh' (the NT forming a monogram).
Provenance
First recorded in the Royal Collection during the reign of Queen Victoria
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Medium and techniques
Watercolour on vellum laid on card with a gessoed back
Measurements
6.4 x 5.3 cm (support, canvas/panel/stretcher external)
7.6 x 6.5 cm (frame, external)
Category
Object type(s)
Other number(s)
Reynolds 1999 : Reynolds, G., 1999. The Sixteenth & Seventeenth Century Miniatures in the Collection of Her Majesty the Queen, London – Reynolds 1999 136Cust 1910 : Cust, L., 1910. Windsor Castle: Portrait Miniatures, London – Cust 1910 49/20Alternative title(s)
Sophia, Electress of Hanover, previously identified as