Edmund Ashfield ( fl. 1660–1690) was an English

portrait A portrait is a portrait painting, painting, portrait photography, photograph, sculpture, or other artistic representation of a person, in which the face and its expressions are predominant. The intent is to display the likeness, Personality type ...

painter and

miniaturist A portrait miniature is a miniature portrait painting, usually executed in gouache, watercolor, or enamel. Portrait miniatures developed out of the techniques of the miniatures in illuminated manuscripts, and were popular among 16th-century eli ...

, who worked in both

oils An oil is any nonpolar chemical substance that is composed primarily of hydrocarbons and is hydrophobic (does not mix with water) & lipophilic (mixes with other oils). Oils are usually flammable and surface active. Most oils are unsaturated ...

and

pastels A pastel () is an art medium in a variety of forms including a stick, a square a pebble or a pan of color; though other forms are possible; they consist of powdered pigment and a binder. The pigments used in pastels are similar to those use ...

Life

Ashfield came from a

Buckinghamshire Buckinghamshire (), abbreviated Bucks, is a ceremonial county in South East England that borders Greater London to the south-east, Berkshire to the south, Oxfordshire to the west, Northamptonshire to the north, Bedfordshire to the north-ea ...

family and was a pupil of

John Michael Wright John Michael Wright (May 1617 – July 1694) was an English or Scottish (he signed as both at times) portrait painter in the Baroque style. Wright trained in Edinburgh under the Scotland, Scots painter George Jamesone, and acquired a consider ...

(1617–94). He worked both in oil and in pastel; according to

Robert Edmund Graves Robert Edmund Graves (1835–1922) was an English librarian.''The Times'' obit has spelling "Edmond" Life Born on 10 June 1835, Robert Edmund was the eldest son of the engraver Robert Graves, A.E.R.A. He was 46 years in the service of the Briti ...

, he excelled most in the latter. Vertue mentions a neatly painted head by him of Sir John Bennett (afterwards Lord Ossulston). A surviving portrait of Mrs Amphilis Broughton, daughter of

Sir Henry Tichborne Sir Henry Tichborne PC (Ire) (1581–1667) was an English soldier and politician. He excelled at the Siege of Drogheda during the Irish Rebellion of 1641. He governed Ireland as one of the two Lord Justices from 1642 to 1644. In 1647, he fou ...

, is dated precisely 1674.Jeffares, Neil ''Dictionary of pastellists before 1800'' Unicorn Press 2006 p.1 He also appears to have been also a copyist, for there are portraits of Frances, Countess of Warwick, and of Mary, Lady Herbert (later Duchess of Richmond and Lennox), after

Van Dyck Sir Anthony van Dyck (, many variant spellings; 22 March 1599 – 9 December 1641) was a Brabantian Flemish Baroque artist who became the leading court painter in England after success in the Southern Netherlands and Italy. The seventh c ...

, which Graves notes are finished with extreme delicacy. Graves opines that his crayon drawings were highly finished, and characterised by the harmonious blending of the tints, of which he multiplied the number and variety, black and white only having hitherto chiefly been employed, the paper forming the middle tint. Ashfield died around 1700. His pupils included Edward Lutterell (c. 1650–1710), whose works in crayons Graves says are superior to those of his teacher, and Garret Morphy (c.1655–1715).

References

External links

Edmund Ashield on ArtnetPortrait of Charles, 5th Baron North
( V&A, London) * Attribution: * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Ashfield, Edmund Year of birth unknown Year of death unknown 17th-century English painters English male painters English portrait miniaturists People from Buckinghamshire English pastel artists