Charles Beale the Younger was the younger son of Charles Beale the Elder and Mary Beale the painter, who were well connected amongst the professional and learned elite in London in the third quarter of the seventeenth century. Charles was encouraged in the art of miniature painting by his father, and was apprenticed to Thomas Flatman in 1677 ' to learn to limne'. His practice as a miniaturist continued until at least 1688 but was curtailed by his failing eyesight. A diverse group of miniatures have been attributed to Charles Beale the Younger, amongst which the present portrait of John Tillotson, Archbishop of Canterbury is believed to be one of the most consistent with the style of his surviving body of red chalk drawings (Pierpont Morgan Library; British Museum). A small watercolour by Beale of Tillotson 'from the life' was seen and recorded by George Vertue but bore the date 1680, so may not be identical to the present miniature which is signed but undated. John Tillotson was successively Chaplain to Charles II, Dean of Canterbury in 1672, Dean of St Paul's in 1689 and Archbishop of Canterbury in 1691. He was close friend of the Beale family, and was painted by Mary Beale a number of times. The present miniature is considered to date from c. 1679-80 and may perhaps have been copied by Charled Beale from one of his mother's portraits of Tillotson. Signed on the right: 'CB' (monogram).