Daffinger had many pupils, and one of them, Emanuel Peter, exceeded all the rest in skill. We illustrate two clever portraits by him ([Plate LV.]), from Dr. Figdor's collection, in which the ladies are wearing very decorative head-dresses. It is suggested that the two fair sitters were relatives, probably cousins, and were painted for some exceptional occasion, perhaps a masquerade, as the custom to wear fantastic head-dresses for such special entertainments still prevails in Vienna.
Finally we must mention Ferdinand Georg Waldmüller, whose own portrait by himself appears on [Plate LVI]. He was one of Lampi's pupils, but, like Daffinger, a profound admirer of Sir Thomas Lawrence. His early days were one continual struggle, and he earned his living by painting bon-bon boxes, and by giving lessons in drawing in girls' schools, until his skill was recognised and he had won a position for himself in Vienna. He even went on the stage in a travelling troupe with his beautiful wife, who was an actress, but forced the attention of critics by his splendid portrait studies, and at length was appointed curator of the Lamberg Gallery, became a popular portrait painter, and died in 1865 justly esteemed for his skill and ability.
Our survey of this fascinating art of the miniature painter has necessarily been brief. There is still a good deal of information to be gathered up concerning the eighteenth-century artists, and probably some of their descendants possess papers and records of vast interest, hidden away amongst family treasures. Perchance this essay may encourage some of them to make the necessary search, and so add to the information available on the lives and careers, especially of our English miniature painters.
Of the earlier men there is not much chance of obtaining new information now, but there is always a possibility that letters or sketches by such a painter as Cooper may again come to light, and if such so fortunate a circumstance were to take place we should delight to learn more of the greatest of our British miniature painters, whose portraits were for so many years ignored in favour of the more brilliant, but far less important, works of the painters who exhibited in the early days of the Royal Academy.
GEORGE C. WILLIAMSON.
MRS. PEMBERTON
BY HANS HOLBEIN