born 1547, Exeter, Eng.
died Jan. 7, 1619, London
British painter.
The son of a goldsmith, he trained as a jeweler and began painting miniatures in his youth. In 1570 he was appointed miniature painter to Elizabeth I . He produced many portraits of her and of such members of her court as Francis Drake and Walter Raleigh . He retained his appointment on the accession of James I (1603), while also practicing as a goldsmith and jeweler. The first great native-born English painter of the Renaissance , he raised the art of miniature painting to its highest point of development and influenced English portraiture through the early 17th century.