Mrs. Vanderbank

Born in Dresden, Zincke was the son of a goldsmith. He studied with the Dresden painter Heinrich Christoph Fehling (1657–1725) and then settled in England about 1704–6, becoming the pupil of Charles Boit (1662–1727) in enamel painting. When Boit left for France in 1714, Zincke became the leading painter in miniature in England; he was patronized by George II (1683–1760) and Frederick, Prince of Wales (1707–1751), and had an enormous practice. His eyes began to trouble him by 1725, and Zincke undertook less work in his later years. To a large extent his enamels are painted ad vivum rather than being copies of existing portraits. His work is copiously represented in the British Royal Collection.

The sitter’s name, a traditional identification, may indicate that she was a relative of the painter John Vanderbank (1694?–1739), who founded the St. Martin's Lane Academy. George Vertue records (“Note Books, vol. 3,” Walpole Society 22 [1934], pp. 57–58) that about 1732 Vanderbank painted his wife half-length in a costume resembling that of Rubens's wife. The miniature was framed in England about 1770–80 as a pair to 95.14.61, although it is slightly later than 1724, the date appearing on that work.

[2016; adapted from Reynolds and Baetjer 1996]

Moses Lazarus, New York (until d. 1885); his daughters, Josephine and Sarah Lazarus, New York (1885–1888/95)

New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Four Centuries of Miniature Painting," January 19–March 19, 1950, unnumbered cat. (p. 7).

New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "The Eighteenth-Century Woman," December 12, 1981–September 5, 1982, unnumbered cat. (p. 59).

New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "European Miniatures in The Metropolitan Museum of Art," November 5, 1996–January 5, 1997, no. 119.

Graham Reynolds with the assistance of Katharine Baetjer. European Miniatures in The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Exh. cat., The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, 1996, pp. 10, 13, 124, 127–28, no. 119, colorpl. 119 and ill. p. 127, note that it is slightly later than its companion (MMA 95.14.61), which is dated 1724.