The two Hilliards were, however, succeeded by two far greater men--the
Olivers. One of them, Isaac, the father, was certainly Nicholas
Hilliard's pupil, as the fact is mentioned more than once in Haydock's
preface to his translation of Lomazzo. It seems to be possible that some
of Isaac Oliver's works were copies of those of his master, and copies
so accurately executed that it is not quite easy to determine respecting
them. In the cabinet of Mr. Pierpont Morgan there is, for example, a
miniature of Arabella Stuart which came from Walpole's collection. It
has always borne the name of Hilliard, and Walpole himself was careful
in the attributions he gave to his portraits, but in the Rijks Museum at
Amsterdam there are two other portraits of the same lady, one of which
is stated to be signed under the frame with the initials of Isaac
Oliver, and there are two more, even more closely resembling it, in the
collection at Sherborne Castle. The Morgan portrait is very
characteristic of Hilliard, and the two in Amsterdam closely resemble
it. Our suggestion for a solution of the difficulty is that the two
Dutch portraits are early copies by Oliver from his master's work.
Oliver was an extremely expert painter, and a far more clever man than
Hilliard, for the pencil drawings of the painter and his wife, which
belong to the Earl of Derby, reveal him as a draughtsman of consummate
skill. He was probably of Huguenot descent, the son, it is believed, of
a certain Peter Olivier (or Oliver), a native of Rouen, who was residing
in London in 1571, and we may take it that his birth was in about 1566;
his death occurred in 1617, and he was buried in the church of St.
Anne's, Blackfriars.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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