Charles Stuart, third Duke of Richmond and sixth Duke of Lennox

Cooper's talent for portraying likeness is supremely demonstrated in this exquisite miniature. Long misidentified, the sitter was correctly identified as Charles Stuart, 3rd Duke of Richmond and 6th Duke of Lennox (1639–72), by Patrick Noon (Noon, 1979, pp. 8–9). Noon recognized the close physical resemblance between the sitter in this work and that of Richmond in a full-length portrait painted by Sir Peter Lely (ca. 1661; North Carolina Museum of Art, Raleigh). Close—almost exact—correspondence between a number of Cooper miniatures and large-scale oil portraits by Lely strongly suggests that the two artists (who lived near each other in Covent Garden) collaborated after the mid-1650s. Although the precise nature of their artistic partnership remains uncertain, it seems most likely that Lely turned to Cooper's portraits—many of which remained unfinished in his studio until his death (they were probably used by the miniaturist to make replicas)—in the creation of his full-scale oil portraits. In fact, among these unfinished works in his studio was a portrait of Richmond with “the face finished and the rest in sketch only” (Foskett, 1974, pp. 63–65). The present miniature, fully finished and signed in monogram, is certainly not that referred to above, but it may be a replica of this lost unfinished work. Painted probably around 1661, when Richmond was made Gentleman of the Bedchamber and Knight of the Order of the Garter, this portrait depicts him at the height of his career at court. Unfortunately, he did not live up to his political or military promise and is mainly remembered for his profligate love affairs. In 1667 he eloped with Frances Teresa Stuart (1647/8–1702), a choice of bride that proved perilous. His elopement with the well-known object of the king's—apparently unrequited—desire led to the couple's immediate banishment from court; they were allowed to return only after she recovered from a near-fatal case of smallpox. Notorious for his dissolute lifestyle, Richmond died in 1672, at the age of thirty-three, leaving his beautiful bride with a vast fortune and her freedom. Julia Marciari-Alexander John Baskett, Paul Mellon's Legacy: a Passion for British art: Masterpieces from the Yale Center for British Art, Yale Center for British Art, New Haven, CT, 2007, p. 243, cat. 6, N5220 M552 P38 2007 OVERSIZE (YCBA)