Isaac Oliver

Isaac Oliver was born in Rouen to a Huguenot family that fled to London when he was a child, and he trained under Nicholas Hilliard. He became Hilliard’s chief rival, bringing a softer modelling of light and shade learned from continental painting to the English portrait miniature, and was limner to Queen Anne of Denmark and Henry, Prince of Wales. His best-known works include A Young Man Seated under a Tree in the Royal Collection and the full-length miniature of Edward Herbert. The Victoria and Albert Museum holds a fine group of his miniatures.