Hilliard, Nicholas, 1537–1619, English miniature painter, son of a goldsmith. Trained first as a jeweler, he was court painter to Elizabeth and to James I. The first true miniaturist in England, Hilliard was self-taught. He painted meticulous linear portraits on card or vellum, even on the backs of playing cards. His works were highly individual, elegant and subtle, particularly well suited to their form. He and his pupil Isaac Oliver Oliver or Olivier, Isaac (ōlĭv`ēər)
..... Click the link for more information. led their field. Hilliard's reputation gained him many distinguished Elizabethans as subjects. Much of his work is at Windsor Castle and in the private collections of England; Queen Elizabeth (1572) is in the National Portrait Gallery and his Portrait of a Youth (c.1588) is in the Victoria and Albert Museum, both in London. An essay on miniature painting, The Art of Limning, is attributed to Hilliard.

Bibliography

See monograph by E. Auerbach (1961).

Hilliard, Nicholas

(born 1547, Exeter, Eng.—died Jan. 7, 1619, London) British painter. The son of a goldsmith, he trained as a jeweler and began painting miniatures in his youth. In 1570 he was appointed miniature painter to Elizabeth I. He produced many portraits of her and of such members of her court as Francis Drake and Walter Raleigh. He retained his appointment on the accession of James I (1603), while also practicing as a goldsmith and jeweler. The first great native-born English painter of the Renaissance, he raised the art of miniature painting to its highest point of development and influenced English portraiture through the early 17th century.