ATTRIBUTED TO JOHN HOSKINS (c.1595–1665)

Portrait of John Hunt (d.1625), bust-length, wearing armour Watercolour on vellum Inscribed, COGITA MORI / ANNO 1625 Inscribed on the reverse: Fui, non sum / es, quod non eris. / + dixit. Jn Hunt. + / […] / pray for his soul / + […] salvation ; translated roughly as ‘As you are, So once was I, As I am, So you will be’.

Circular, 6cm diameter Framed: 11cm

This evocative image of the Hampshire gentleman John Hunt, dressed in chivalric armour, is attributed to the English miniaturist John Hoskins. Completed in around 1625, the text on the front and a seventeenth century inscription on the reverse suggests that it was completed on the death of the sitter in that very year. The presence of this date makes this a portrait miniature completed within the first decade of Hoskins’ career.

The golden background here, unlike the bright blue encountered often in sixteenth and seventeenth century miniature portraits, is incredibly rare for Hoskins. However, it is undeniable that particular example is highly characteristic of the artist, showing the influence of Hilliard and Oliver before the Van Dyckian leap forward encountered in Hoskins’ miniatures of the next decade.

A seventeenth-century inscription on the reverse of the portrait explains that it depicts a Jn Hunt. The motto on the front, 'Cogito Mori' (‘Think upon Death’), and the year 1625 points towards the portrait have been completed on the death of the sitter. Research has revealed that the portrait likely depicts John Hunt of Popham (d. 1625), a member of the gentry who is recorded to have purchased the ancient Hampshire manor of Clere Woodcott (formerly Clere) from Sir Humphrey Forster, 1st Bt. (c. 1595-1663) in 1620.1 Considering the strong royalist connections of the Forster family, both in Berkshire and Hampshire, it is likely that Hunt shared these views vehemently.

Hunt is recorded to having married Amy Figher and their son James continued the Hunt ownership of the manor until it was conveyed to the Bowen family in 1715.

The blackened plate armour exhibited here, with particularly cusped lames on the pouldrons, is evocative of Dutch armours of the early-seventeenth century. This type of heavy armour suitable for multiple uses including cavalry was amongst some of the last worn in this century, before plate armours eventually receded in favour of simple breast plates over buff leather jackets. The added details of a golden chain, brightly polished brass rivets, along with a cusped red lining under the pouldrons, adds greatly to the decorative appeal of this late Jacobean early Carolingian image.

£9,250