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| Isaac Oliver Miniature portrait of Lady Arabella Stuart before 1615 watercolor on vellum Nationalmuseum, Stockholm |
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| Isaac Oliver Miniature portrait of Admiral George Clifford 3rd Earl of Cumberland ca. 1595 watercolor on vellum Nationalmuseum, Stockholm |
Dedication to Lord Cumberland
Redoubted Lord! in whose courageous mind
The flower of chivalry now blooming fair
Doth promise fruit, worthy the noble kind
Which of their praises have left you the heir;
To you, this humble present I prepare
For love of virtue and of martial power,
To which, though nobly you inclined are
As goodly well you showed in late essays,
Yet brave examples of long passed days
in which true honour you may fashioned see,
To like desire of honour you may raise
And fill your mind with magnanimity.
Receive it, therefore, Lord, as it was meant
For honour of your name and high descent.
– Edmund Spenser, from the Faerie Queene (1590)
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| John Hoskins Miniature portrait of unknown man before 1644 watercolor on vellum Nationalmuseum, Stockholm |
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| Alexander Cooper Miniature portrait of Axel Oxenstierna 1650 watercolor on vellum Nationalmuseum, Stockholm |
Axel Oxenstierna (above) was Chancellor of Sweden during the minority of Queen Christina, who inherited the throne at age six. During teenage years she received from him the largest share of her political education. After she reached age eighteen and began to rule in 1644, the two frequently disagreed and clashed. Oxenstierna opposed her abdication in 1654, but she persisted, handing the crown over to her cousin, who became Charles X (below).
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| Alexander Cooper Miniature portrait of King Charles X Gustav of Sweden before 1660 watercolor on vellum Nationalmuseum, Stockholm |
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| Samuel Cooper Miniature portrait of Alice Bourne, Lady Digby before 1658 watercolor on vellum Nationalmuseum, Stockholm |
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| Samuel Cooper Miniature portrait of unknown man before 1672 watercolor on vellum Nationalmuseum, Stockholm |
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| Christian Friedrich Zincke Miniature portrait of Joseph Addison before 1719 enamel Nationalmuseum, Stockholm |
When time itself shall be no more,
And all things in confusion hurl'd,
Music shall then exert its power,
And sound survive the ruins of the world.
– Joseph Addison, from Song for St. Cecilia's Day (1692)
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| Anonymous artist Miniature of Princess Vilhelmina Charlotta of Hessen-Kassel before 1722 enamel Nationalmuseum, Stockholm |
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| attributed to Anton Raphael Mengs Miniature portrait of Maria Antonia Walpurgis Hereditary Electress of Saxony before 1779 watercolor on vellum Nationalmuseum, Stockholm |
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| Abraham Constantin Miniature portrait of Eugène de Beauharnais ca. 1800 enamel Nationalmuseum, Stockholm |
The father of Eugène de Beauharnais (1781-1824) was a military commander guillotined in 1794 during Robespierre's Reign of Terror. His mother Joséphine, who escaped the guillotine herself when Robespierre fell, remarried in 1796, giving her fifteen-year-old son for a step-father another military commander, the upward-climbing general Napoleon Bonaparte.
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| Jacques Pajou Miniature portrait of unknown woman 1805 oil on canvas Nationalmuseum, Stockholm |
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| Gustaf Sandberg Cabinet miniature of Sofia Dorotea Sandberg (the artist's wife, in 17th-century costume) ca. 1820-30 oil on panel Nationalmuseum, Stockholm |
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| Simon-Jacques Rochard Miniature portrait of unknown man 1836 oil on canvas Nationalmuseum, Stockholm |