This signed miniature is one of the earliest examples of John Hoskins's work. It pre-dates his earliest surviving dated works (oil portraits of Sir Hamon Le Strange and Alice Le Strange of 1617) by several years. The low, rounded neckline of the sitter's dress indicates a date c. 1612-15, when Hoskins was at the outset of his career as a miniaturist. A miniature of an unknown woman by Hoskins in the Victoria and Albert Museum (P6-1942; also of c. 1615) clearly shows Hoskins's indebtedness to Nicholas Hilliard (1547-1619) at this early stage in his career; the present miniature in contrast shows evidence of the influence of Isaac Oliver (c.1565?-1617), both in the positioning of the figure against the blue background, and in the definition of the sitter's long strands of hair. John Hoskins went on to become a highly successful miniaturist enjoying court patronage during the reigns of James I and Charles I. His mature style of the 1620s and 1630s moved away from that of Hilliard and Oliver, incorporating for the first time the use of extensive landscape and sky backgrounds. Many of his later works were copied directly from full-lengths by Mytens and Van Dyck, but the variation in style of his later work is in some cases attributable to input by his son, John Hoskins the Younger, and by his nephews, Samuel and Alexander Cooper. There is no tradition about the identity of the sitter, although her jewellery and the richly embroidered dress that she wears, perhaps with a floral design, suggest a subject of high status. Signed on the left: 'iH' (in monogram).