John Hoskins was the most successful miniaturist working in England between the death of Nicholas Hilliard (1547-1619) and the rise to fame of his own nephew, Samuel Cooper (?1608-1672). His earliest dated works are oil paintings from 1617, but he seems also to have worked in miniature from this point onwards and had already established his reputation and career as a miniature painter during the reign of James I. This miniature was commissioned not by the sitter, but by his successor, Charles I, in 1635. Five years later, Charles I's Surveyor of Pictures, Abraham van der Doort, recorded this miniature: 'don upon the wrong light the 4th picture beeing king James the 6th upon an Ovall- Lavender Cullored Card in a laced ruff and a- black habitt, with a Corslett about his necke' and noted that it was 'Coppied by Haskins after the principall.being in the-Bearestake- Gallery, wch was done by Paul van=sommer'. The full-length oil portrait by Paul van Somer from which the miniature derives remains in the Royal Collection today (401224). The 'corslett' which the king is seen wearing in the miniature is shown to be the gorget from a suit of Greenwich armour which is depicted in full in van Somer's portrait, lying at the king's feet. An earlier miniature of James I by Hoskins (Victoria and Albert Museum, P.27-1954) dates to c.1620-5 and is taken from life. That miniature shows how deeply Hoskins' own mature style was indebted to the tradition of Nicholas HIlliard and Isaac Oliver. The present miniature shows a significant departure from Hoskins' own manner, and a literal rendition of van Somer's very different style.