THOMAS FLATMAN (1633—1688), an Oxford man and a barrister, who deserted the Bar and became a painter, obtained great success in miniature.
ALEXANDER BROWNE, his contemporary, painted portraits of Charles II. and other members of the Court. He was also an engraver and published, in 1699, a work entitled "Ars Pictoria," with thirty-one etchings.
LEWIS CROSSE (died 1724) was the chief miniature painter of Queen Anne's reign.
CHARLES BOIT, a Swede by birth, practised at this period as a miniature painter. Failing in his business as a jeweller, he left London in order to teach drawing in the country. Here he is said to have induced a pupil, daughter of an officer, to promise him marriage, and the intrigue having been discovered, the expectant bridegroom was thrown into prison for two years, where he employed himself in acquiring the art of enamel-painting. Miniature painting is of two kinds—portraits in water colour on ivory and in enamel on copper, the latter being the more complicated mode. Boit on his release practised miniature-painting in London, and gained high prices for his works, although his colouring is by no means pleasant. He was in favour at Court, but, while attempting to prepare a plate larger than ordinary to contain portraits of the Royal family and chief courtiers, Queen Anne died, and Boit, having borrowed money for the plate, was left without hope of being able to pay his creditors. Escaping to France, he again succeeded in his art, and died at Paris in 1726.
CHRISTIAN FREDERICK ZINCKE (1684—1767), though a native of Dresden, identified himself with art in England. He was a pupil of Boit, but soon outshone his master. His enamel painting was simple yet refined, his drawing graceful, his colour pleasing. George II. was among his numerous patrons. Several of Zincke's enamels are in the Royal Collection.
JAMES DEACON succeeded Zincke as a tenant of his house in Tavistock Street, Covent Garden, and bid fair to succeed to his place as a miniature painter, when he caught gaol fever at a trial at the Old Bailey, and died in 1750.
JARVIS SPENCER, who had been a domestic servant, gained by his talent and perseverance a high place among miniature painters of this period. Indeed, after the death of Deacon, he was the fashionable painter of his class. He died in 1763.
Other artists combined the skill of a jeweller and goldsmith with that of an enameller. It was the fashion to decorate watches, brooches, snuff-boxes, and other trinkets with portraits of friends and lovers of the owner, and thus the work of the goldsmith and the miniature painter were allied.