Henry Hope (1735/36–1811), after Jones

Henry Bone's enamel portrait Henry Hope after Jones, completed in 1802, belongs to a specialized tradition of enamel miniature painting that required extraordinary technical skill and served a distinct function from watercolor-on-ivory miniatures. Henry Hope (1735/36–1811) was a wealthy Anglo-Dutch banker and art collector whose collection rivaled the greatest private holdings in Europe; his portrait was important enough to warrant translation into enamel, a permanent medium that resisted the fading affecting watercolor. Bone was the leading enamel painter in England, serving as Enamel Painter to the Prince of Wales and then to George III and IV. His technique involved painting on prepared copper with glass-based pigments fired at high temperatures, a demanding process that could reproduce the tonality and detail of oil portraits with extraordinary fidelity.

Enamel painting requires building up form through successive fired layers, each application of pigment transformed by heat in ways the painter must anticipate rather than see directly. Bone's technical mastery is evident in the smooth, glassy surface and the subtle tonal gradations of the flesh modeling. The result has a jewel-like luminosity and permanence unlike any other portrait medium.