1682-1740Bernard Lens III
Considered one of the most important miniature painters of the early eighteenth century, Bernard Lens III was born in London to a family with a long artistic tradition. Son of a mezzotint engraver and drawing master, he began his studies in his father and John Stuart’s drawing school, St Paul’s Church Yard, and then moved to the Academy of Painting. Soon he achieved the unpaid position of miniature painter to both George I and George II, which secured him the patronage from the most influential people in the country.
Lens’s biggest contribution to the English portrait miniature tradition was the introduction of ivory as a base on which to paint. Used first by Rosalba Carriera (1675-1757) in Italy from 1696, her example may have reached him in the form of miniatures bought by English travellers in Venice. At first, Lens used thick slices of ivory and painted the costumes and background on them with gouache, reserving the transparency of watercolour for representing skin, although his use of a greenish-brown flesh colour was not suited to ivory.
The advantage of ivory is its luminosity, which only becomes apparent with the use of transparent colours that allow the material to glow through. However, this was not discovered until the end of the seventeenth century, after ivory replaced the early tradition derived from medieval illuminations that used vellum as a support.