John Hoskins

Who was John Hoskins?

John Hoskins, English miniature painter, the uncle of Samuel Cooper, who received his artistic education in Hoskins's house.

Hoskins was born in Wells. His finest miniatures are at Ham House, Montagu House, Windsor Castle, Amsterdam and in the Pierpont Morgan collection. Vertue stated that Hoskins had a son, and Redgrave added that the son painted a portrait of James II in 1686 and was paid £10, 5s. for it, a statement for which there must have been some evidence, although it is not supported by any reference in the State Papers.

Some contemporary inscriptions on the miniatures at Ham House record them as the work of Old Hoskins, but the fact of the Existence of a younger artist of the same name is settled by a miniature in the Pierpont Morgan collection, signed by Hoskins, and bearing an authentic engraved inscription on its contemporary frame to the effect that it represents the duke of Berwick at the age of twenty-nine in 1700.