Diminutive marvels of artistry and fine craftsmanship, portrait miniatures reveal a wealth of information within their small frames. They can tell tales of cultural history and biography, of people and their passions, of evolving tastes in jewelry, fashion, hairstyles, and the decorative arts. Unlike many other genres, miniatures have a tradition in which amateurs and professionals have operated in parallel and women artists have flourished as professionals. This richly illustrated book presents approximately 180 portrait miniatures selected from the holdings of the Cincinnati Art Museum, the largest and most diverse collection of its kind in North America. The book stresses the continuity of stylistic tradition across Europe and America as well as the vitality of the portrait miniature format through more than four centuries. A detailed catalogue entry, as well as a concise artist biography, appears for each object. Essays examine various aspects of miniature painting, of the depiction of costume in miniatures, and of the allied art of hair work.

In this fully revised and expanded book, Nicholas Beer examines the sight-size portrait method, in which the artist stands back at a distance to view the picture and sitter side-by-side and to scale. Nick demonstrates the technique in a series of projects that culminate in portrait painting. There are also sections on the history of sight-size, early treatises on portraiture, and the 'philosophy' of seeing. This new edition also includes a 'starts and studies' section, which looks at a series of unfinished paintings in detail to analyse the thought processes and techniques of great artists. Includes; an historical overview of the technique and introduction to the traditional language of drawing and painting; the limited palette and the philosophy of seeing; a step-by-step sequence with practical instruction, and examples of great masters ranging from Van Dyck to Sargent. Superbly illustrated with 152 colour illustrations including step-by-step sequence.