Lot 5: Alexander Cooper (London c.1605 - London 1660)

Gaston d'Orleans (1608-1660), wearing open white lawn shirt with falling, lace-trimmed collar, tasselled ties at his neck, three-pearl earring in his left ear, his hair worn loose and curled
watercolour on vellum, replica silver frame with pierced spiral cresting
Oval, 5mm. (2ins.) high

H.M., 1999
P.A., 1999
S.N.P.G., 2000-2003

S.P.N.F., no.5

Gaston d'Orleans was the son of King Henry IV and Marie de' Medici, younger brother of Louis XIII. He took part in many of the conspiracies of the great nobles against Louis XIII's minister, Cardinal Richelieu, and several times fled from France. Although Gaston was pardoned after each revolt, his associates did not fare so well; the younger Henri de Montmorency and the Marquis de Cinq Mars were executed. After the death of Louis XIII in 1643, Gaston became Lieutenant General of France and successfully campaigned against the Spanish. For his leading part in the Fronde he was exiled to Blois in 1652. Gaston was the father of Mlle. de Montpensier.
It is unusual for a gentleman to be presented in such a state of undress in a portrait miniature. It can be assumed that this was a very intimate gift, possibly originally presented in a closed case.

Miniatures by Alexander Cooper, brother of Samuel Cooper and pupil of Peter Oliver, are rare. Alexander spent most of his working life in Northern Europe, but John Murdoch has assertained that he probably died in England, rather than in Sweden as previously thought, circa 1660 (John Murdoch, Seventeenth Century English Miniatures, 1997, p.103).