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The contemporary inscription on the reverse of this portrait gives the sitter’s name as ‘Tom Noel’. Research has suggested that he may have been a member of the influential baronetcy of Noel of Kirkby Mallory in Leicestershire. If this portrait does in fact represent Thomas Noel, he was the son of Lady Margaret Noel and Sir William Noel, Bart.. His mother, who died in 1671, was buried in Westminster Abbey. Through another of her sons, John, Lady Margaret was ancestress of Lady Byron, wife of the poet Lord Byron. The Noels were also related to the Wentworth family.

The present portrait is of a standard of preservation rarely seen in seventeenth century portrait miniatures. The loss of the original frame may have in fact prevented the miniature being worn or hung, hence its remarkable level of conservancy. The artist, Thomas Flatman, possibly had an additional connection to the Noel family. As a great friend of the artist Mary Beale and her husband Charles (whom Flatman paints in 1664), connections and patrons were often shared.[1]In Charles Beale’s pocketbook of 1674, a sitter is recorded as having her portrait taken by Mary Beale as ‘Mrs Fran. Noels (sic.)’.[2]This may have been Frances Noel, the stepmother of the present sitter, who had married his father, Sir William, just two years previously in 1672.

Thomas himself married Anne Whitlock (d. 1737) (daughter of Sir William Whitlock) but he died at the age of 26 before any children were born to the couple. It is possible that this portrait was commissioned to commemorate their marriage.

This portrait is attributed to Thomas Flatman on the distinctive technical similarities found in his extant miniatures, in particular the ‘dry’ brushwork and distinguishing highlights on the sitter’s curls. Flatman was not primarily celebrated as a miniature painter – he was also a lawyer, a poet and a Fellow of the newly founded Royal Society in 1668.[3]Despite miniature painting not being his principal talent, Flatman is often viewed by art historians as the natural successor to the virtuoso Samuel Cooper. In their description of Flatman’s technique, the Victoria and Albert Museum in London draws attention to the graphic nature of his painting, which focusses on the mechanical nature of producing a portrait miniature or ‘limning’. The honest ‘warts and all’ approach to Flatman’s subjects has also drawn comparisons with Cooper’s psychologically penetrating portraits.

[1]The portrait of Charles Beale by Flatman is in the Victoria and Albert Museum (P.13-1941).

[2]Charles Beale, Pocket book, 1674, with commentary by Richard Jeffree, circa 1975, National Portrait Gallery Heinz Archive, Richard Jeffree papers, drawer 2 folder 22; the pocket book transcript from George Vertue, 'Notebook A.x', 1743, British Library Add Ms 23072; in 'The art world in Britain 1660 to 1735,' at https://artworld.york.ac.uk/sources/5.3005.0009; accessed 20 May 2021.

[3]There were several editions published of his Poems and Songs(1674).