Horace Hone (1756-1825) Miniature portrait of Nathaniel Hone (1760-1819) Watercolour on ivory, oval, 4.5 x 3 cm (1.75 x 1.25'') framed in a gold oval locket with gilt and painted decoration inside...

Horace Hone (1756-1825) Miniature portrait of Nathaniel Hone (1760-1819) Watercolour on ivory, oval, 4.5 x 3 cm (1.75 x 1.25'') framed in a gold oval locket with gilt and painted decoration inside the glass, the reverse is decorated with interwoven locks of the sitter's hair and his initials NH in seed pearls signed and dated: 'HH (monogram) 178... (last digit indecipherable)' inscribed on labels 'Nathaniel Hone my great-grandfather' and 'Nathaniel Hone 1760-1819 married Hannah Dickinson was Lord Mayor of Dublin son of Brindley Hone' Provenance: by descent in the Hone family, Private collection. Nathaniel Hone of 79 Fleet Street was a successful merchant and High Sheriff of the City of Dublin from 1798-9. He was elected an alderman in 1803 and became Lord Mayor of Dublin in 1810-1. The sitter was the son of Brindley Hone, a pin merchant of Usher's Quay and a nephew of the artist Nathaniel Hone RA and a first cousin of the miniaturist Horace Hone who painted this portrait. This miniature portrait is typical of Horace Hone's earlier work in his use of diminutive linear brushstrokes. The portrait is extremely neatly drawn and carefully painted. The details of the sitter's face are painted in short parallel lines, which are closely spaced creating a smooth surface. The coat and neck linen are painted in gouache.

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