Miss Lucy Nicholas

Born in 1742, Richard Crosse came from a prosperous Devonshire family. He initially began painting for pleasure but embarked on a career as an artist after winning a prize at the Society of Arts aged just 16. After moving to London he studied at William Shipley’s Drawing School and in the Duke of Richmond’s sculpture gallery. Crosse, who was born deaf and who was unable to speak, led a relatively solitary life at his home in Henrietta Street, Covent Garden. However, his finely executed works and prolific output – averaging about 100 miniatures per year at one time – made him a popular miniaturist and in 1788 he became Painter in Enamel to George III.

Crosse’s miniatures of children are particularly charming, as shown by this portrait of five-year-old Miss Nicholas and her pet King Charles spaniel, painted in around 1785. Although there is no record of this commission in Crosse’s surviving sitter books (V&A), he did receive £8 8s for a ‘copy of a picture’ from a Mrs Nichlas (sic) in May 1779.

Crosse rarely signed his miniatures; however, his work is easily recognised by the use of a greenish-blue shading to model his sitter’s features. Also typical of his work are the darkly painted eyes and rather heavily drawn eyebrows. The artist’s gift for characterisation is apparent in this miniature. There is a sense of light-heartedness in Miss Nicholas’s sweetly upturned mouth and the way her neatly painted hair mirrors the little dog’s, which is painted with just a few deft brush strokes.