HOSKINS, JOHN (d. 1664), English miniature painter. His finest miniatures are at Ham House, Montagu House, Windsor castle, Amsterdam and in the Pierpont Morgan collection. Vertue stated that Hoskins had a son, and Redgrave added that the son painted a portrait of James II. in 1686 and was paid L I o, 5s. for it, a statement for which there must have been some evidence, although it is not supported by any reference in the State Papers. Some contemporary inscriptions on the miniatures at Ham House record them as the work of "Old Hoskins," but the fact of the existence of a younger artist of the same name is settled by a miniature in the Pierpont Morgan collection, signed by Hoskins, and bearing an authentic engraved inscription on its contemporary frame to the effect that it represents the duke of Berwick at the age of 29 in 1700. The elder Hoskins was buried on Feb. 22, 1664, in St. Paul's, Covent Garden, and, as there is no doubt of the authenticity of this miniature or of the signature upon it, it is evident that he had a son who survived him 36 years and whose monogram we find upon this portrait.
See: Roger de Piles, The Art of Painting, and the lives of the paint ers (3rd ed., with additions by B. Buckeridge, 175o) ; J. L. Propert, A History of Miniature Art (1887) ; Horace Walpole, Anecdotes of Painting in England (ed. R. N. Wornum, i888) . (G. C. W.)