NEWS FLASH: Hilliard Discovery

In the April 2024 issue of The Burlington Magazine, an important miniature by Nicholas Hilliard (c.1547-1619) was published for the first time in an article by Elizabeth Goldring and Emma Rutherford, having just emerged from a private collection. The discovery and the intriguing story behind the portrait’s commission, have since featured in The Times newspaper (27 May 2024), BBC News online (5 June 2024), and Not Just the Tudors podcast (6 June 2024)..

The portrait adds significantly to our understanding of Hilliard’s practice and patronage and constitutes the artist’s only known completed cabinet miniature of a female subject. What’s more, the sitter can be identified as Lady Arbella (or Arabella) Stuart (1575–1615), and the commission connected with a fascinating episode of spycraft in late Elizabethan England.

Elizabeth and Emma spent over a year researching this portrait, and it’s with enormous excitement that it is finally published.