Millington, James Heath

Introduction:

Millington was an accomplished profilist and miniature artist from Cork, Ireland. He described himself primarily as a “copyist” and won a high profile appointment to the Royal Academy later in his life.

Millington was born in Cork, Ireland where he initially worked as miniature painter and silhouette artist. He later moved to Dublin and then to England by 1826. Between 1831 and 1870 he frequently exhibited at the Royal Academy and was a curator of their school of painting, a prestigious appointment. Millington had two trade labels as a silhouette artist, one of them advertising his use of the patent delineator to take profiles and his work as a miniaturist on ivory.

Millington used dense black water colour for his silhouettes. Detail was depicted in thick layers of gum Arabic, applied with course brush strokes. Dress details such as men’s collars were left white to accentuate them. It has been noted that Millington’s silhouette work is not as professional as his subsequent miniature work.