home  the collection  art in enamel

Duchess of Marlborough,
by C F Zincke

Sarah, Duchess of Marlborough (1660-1744)

Sarah was an attendant to the Duchess of York's stepdaughter, the Princess Anne, when she met John Churchill, the First Duke of Marlborough. They married in 1678. She became one of the Ladies of the Bedchamber to Princess Anne in 1683. As Mistress of the Robes and Keeper of the Privy Purse and a close friend of Queen Anne, she wielded great influence at court until 1707, when she and the Queen had a sudden falling out. Thereafter she spent more time at Blenheim Palace, remaining one of the most painted women of her day.

In this portrait, painted around 1720, the Duchess is shown facing forward in a white gown with a blue bow at the bodice.

The back of the gold frame is engraved,

Sarah Duchess
of Marlborough

Christian Friedrich Zincke (1683/4 - 1767)

Christian Friedrich Zincke was the son of a Dresden goldsmith. He was apprenticed to his father and he also studied painting. Zincke also appears to have studied with Charles Boit while in Dresden and arrived in England in 1706, at Boit's request, to assist him in his studio. Zincke worked with Boit until the latter left for France in 1714, by which time Zincke seems to have inherited a good many of Boit's fashionable clients.

Zincke was appointed Cabinet Painter to Frederick Prince of Wales in 1732. He lived in England for the rest of his life and was the most successful enamel painter of his era, having numerous royal and other important clients. Although his early miniatures are very much like Boit's in style, Zincke adopted his own stipple technique of tiny red dots which mixed visually with the white ground to create the flesh tones.

His work is in major museums, including the V&A, the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford, and the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.

back to the collection