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Peter Paul Lens was the son of Bernard Lens III (1682-1740). His father Bernard was a pivotal figure in the history of the portrait miniature in England. Drawing master (to Princess Mary, daughter of George II and Queen Caroline), he also practiced etching and topographical draughtsmanship. A pioneering artist, he was the first English artist to attempt painting in watercolour on the support of ivory as opposed to the traditional vellum used by miniaturists.

Bernard’s son, Peter Paul, who painted this enamel, was apprenticed to his father from 1729, around the age of fifteen. He is best known for his works on ivory but following the discovery of Peter Paul’s monogram on the counter-enamel of a portrait of a lady by Philip Mould & Co., the present work can be confidently attributed to his hand. Almost identical in pose, colouring and technique, the portrait is extremely accomplished and easily comparable to the work of Rouquet and Zincke, contemporary masters of this challenging skill. In fact so proficient a portrait in enamel as this could only have been taught by another master and it is highly probable that Peter Paul was apprenticed to an expert enameller, though the documentary evidence for this is lacking.

The professional finesse with which this enamel is painted is rather at odds with what is known of Peter Paul’s private life. A member of a ‘hell fire’ club in Ireland called The Blasters, Peter Paul was described by contemporary observers as a ‘reprobate’.[1] After living in Dublin between 1737-38, he left Ireland in disgrace, after his ‘vile, athestical conversations and behaviour publickly practised (for some wicked blasphemous affair in Ireland).’ The antiquarian George Vertue, however, did not focus on this unpleasant side of Peter Paul’s character, calling him simply ‘An Ingenious Youth’. The present work would appear to support Vertue’s conclusion.

[1] The Blasters Hellfire Club was the subject of a report by a committee at the House of Lords in 1738, owing to its ‘Satanist’ practices. Lens was singled out in Jonathan Swift’s condemnation of the Club when he labelled it ‘a brace of monsters called blasters, or blasphemers or bacchanalians’. A bishop named Berkeley was equally horrified that Lens had ‘publicly drank to the devil’s health’.

Peter Paul Lens was the son of Bernard Lens III (1682-1740). His father Bernard was a pivotal figure in the history of the portrait miniature in England. Drawing master (to Princess Mary, daughter of George II and Queen Caroline), he also practiced etching and topographical draughtsmanship. A pioneering artist, he was the first English artist to attempt painting in watercolour on the support of ivory as opposed to the traditional vellum used by miniaturists.

Bernard’s son, Peter Paul, who painted this enamel, was apprenticed to his father from 1729, around the age of fifteen. He is best known for his works on ivory but following the discovery of Peter Paul’s monogram on the counter-enamel of a portrait of a lady by Philip Mould & Co. in 20??, the present work can be confidently attributed to his hand. Almost identical in pose, colouring and technique, the portrait is extremely accomplished and easily comparable to the work of Rouquet and Zincke, contemporary masters of this challenging skill. In fact so proficient a portrait in enamel as this could only have been taught by another master and it is highly probable that Peter Paul was apprenticed to an expert enameller, though the documentary evidence for this is lacking.

The professional finesse with which this enamel is painted is rather at odds with what is known of Peter Paul’s private life. A member of a ‘hell fire’ club in Ireland called The Blasters, Peter Paul was described by contemporary observers as a ‘reprobate’.[1] After living in Dublin between 1737-38, he left Ireland in disgrace, after his ‘vile, athestical conversations and behaviour publickly practised (for some wicked blasphemous affair in Ireland).’ The antiquarian George Vertue, however, did not focus on this unpleasant side of Peter Paul’s character, calling him simply ‘An Ingenious Youth’. The present work would appear to support Vertue’s conclusion.

[1] The Blasters Hellfire Club was the subject of a report by a committee at the House of Lords in 1738, owing to its ‘Satanist’ practices. Lens was singled out in Jonathan Swift’s condemnation of the Club when he labelled it ‘a brace of monsters called blasters, or blasphemers or bacchanalians’. A bishop named Berkeley was equally horrified that Lens had ‘publicly drank to the devil’s health’.