{{short description|English art writer (1911–1998)}} {{Use dmy dates|date=April 2022}} {{Infobox person | name = Daphne Foskett | honorific_suffix = {{post-nominals|country=GBR|FRSA}} | birth_name = Daphne Kirk | birth_date = {{Birth date|1911|12|23|df=y}} | birth_place = Shoddesden, [[Kimpton, Hampshire]], England | death_date = {{Death date and age|1998|06|15|1911|12|23|df=y}} | death_place = [[Solihull]], [[Warwickshire]], England | citizenship = British | occupation = {{Plainlist| * Art connoisseur * Art writer }} | spouse = {{marriage|[[Reginald Foskett]]|1937|1973|end=his death}} | children = 2 }} '''Daphne Foskett''' {{post-nominals|country=GBR|FRSA}} ({{Nee}} Kirk; 23 December 1911 – 15 June 1998) was an English art connoisseur and art writer. She became interested in [[portrait miniature]]s while living in Edinburgh in the late 1950s and was encouraged to publish her research as her knowledge on the subject grew. Foskett published seven books and one exhibition catalogue during her career. She conducted lecture tours and was a contributor to some periodicals. Foskett's large photographic archive was sent to the [[Scottish National Portrait Gallery]] on a long-term loan in 2003 and her miniatures were catalogued in the same year.
==Early life== Foskett was born at [[Kimpton, Hampshire|Shoddesden]], [[Kimpton, Hampshire]] on 23 December 1911.<ref name="ODNBEntry" /> She was the daughter of the [[Duke of Cornwall's Light Infantry]] captain John William Carnegie Kirk and his wife, Agnes Maud Haynes,<ref name=ODNBEntry>{{Cite ODNB|last=Lloyd|first=Stephen|id=70226|title=Foskett [née Kirk], Daphne}}</ref> {{Nee}} Kirk.<ref name="GaleEntry">{{cite encyclopedia|title=Daphne Foskett|url=https://link.gale.com/apps/doc/H1000033088/GPS?u=wikipedia&sid=GPS&xid=a20a2b78|encyclopedia=Gale Literature: Contemporary Authors|via=Gale In Context: Biography|url-access=subscription|date=24 May 2002|access-date=10 August 2020|archive-date=3 November 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201103204801/https://go.gale.com/ps/i.do?p=GPS&u=wikipedia&id=GALE{{!}}H1000033088&v=2.1&it=r&sid=GPS&asid=a20a2b78|url-status=live}}</ref> Foskett was of Scottish ancestry through her paternal grandfather, [[John Kirk (explorer)|John Kirk]], the botanist and physician.<ref name="ODNBEntry" /> She grew up primarily in [[Sevenoaks]], [[Kent]],<ref name="ScotsmanObit">{{cite news|last=Lloyd|first=Stephen|date=18 July 1998|title=Daphne Foskett|page=20|work=[[The Scotsman]]|url=https://link.gale.com/apps/doc/A82930543/GPS?u=wikipedia&sid=GPS&xid=8f7be7f6|url-access=subscription|access-date=10 August 2020|via=Gale OneFile: News|archive-date=3 November 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201103204829/https://go.gale.com/ps/i.do?p=GPS&u=wikipedia&id=GALE{{!}}A82930543&v=2.1&it=r&sid=GPS&asid=8f7be7f6|url-status=live}}</ref> and was taught at the private St Ives School, [[Bexhill-on-Sea|Bexhill]], [[Sussex]],<ref name="GaleEntry" /> but did not have any formal qualifications when she left the school.<ref name="ODNBEntry" /> Foskett was as a [[matron]] at a Kent [[Preparatory school (United Kingdom)|preparatory school]] in the mid-1930s. She worked in the [[Nottinghamshire]] parishes of [[Rainworth]] from 1937 to 1943 before moving to [[Ordsall (ward)|Ordsall]] until 1947. Foskett later moved to work in [[Ilkeston]], [[Derbyshire]] from 1948 to 1956. These years saw her get heavily involved with the [[Girl Guides]], the [[Mothers' Union]] and the Young Wives.<ref name="ScotsmanObit" />
==Career== While living in Edinburgh during the late 1950s, Foskett became interested in [[portrait miniature]]s, and assisted the miniatures dealer Arthur Tite at the annual [[Grosvenor House]] art fair.<ref name="ODNBEntry" /> As her knowledge on the subject grew, she was encouraged to publish her research,<ref name="ScotsmanObit" /> and published ''British Portrait Miniatures: A History'' in 1963.<ref name="GaleEntry" /> Foskett followed with the first monograph on the 18th-century miniaturist [[John Smart]] the following year.<ref name="ScotsmanObit" /> As with several other researchers, she misidentified Smart's place of birth as [[Norfolk]] when he was born in [[Soho]].<ref>{{cite journal|last=Hall|first=Michael|title=Looking Smart|url=https://www.proquest.com/docview/1643143663|journal=[[Country Life (magazine)|Country Life]]|date=12 November 2014|access-date=10 August 2020|pages=68–71|url-access=subscription|id={{ProQuest|1643143663}}}}</ref> In 1965, the Scottish committee of the Arts Council invited her to curate the coinciding [[Edinburgh International Festival]] exhibition 'British Portrait Miniatures' at Rothesay Terrace.<ref name="ODNBEntry" /> Foskett was appointed a governor of [[Windermere School|St. Anne's School, Windermere]] in 1971.<ref name="GaleEntry" />
The next year, she authored the two-volume ''A Dictionary of British Miniature Painters'' containing biographical information on more than 4,500 portrait miniaturists.<ref name="ScotsmanObit" /> Foskett published two monographs and an exhibition catalogue in ''Samuel Cooper, 1609–1672'', ''John Harden of Brathay Hall, 1772–1847'' and ''Samuel Cooper and His Contemporaries.''<ref name="ODNBEntry" /><ref name="GaleEntry" /> She republished ''A Dictionary of British Miniature Painters'' together with a new edition of ''Collecting Miniatures'' to compile the single-volume ''Miniatures: Dictionary and Guide'' in 1979.<ref name="ScotsmanObit" /> In 1981, Foskett wrote her eighth piece of work, ''Elizabethan Miniatures.''<ref name="GaleEntry" /> She was a consultant on the 'Artists of the Tudor Court' exhibition at the [[Victoria and Albert Museum]] in 1983 and authored an unpublished but completed manuscript on a major period of the portrait miniature.<ref name="ScotsmanObit" />
In 1987, Foskett's final book, ''Miniatures: Dictionary and Guide'', was published for the Antique Collectors' Club in [[Woodbridge, Suffolk]],<ref name="ODNBEntry" /> and was made an Honorary Member of the [[Royal Society of Miniature Painters, Sculptors and Gravers|Royal Miniature Society]].<ref name="ScotsmanObit" /> She contributed to the periodicals ''Antique Dealer, [[Apollo (magazine)|Apollo]], Collector's Guide'' and ''[[The Connoisseur (magazine)|The Connoisseur]].''<ref name="GaleEntry" /> Foskett was a [[Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts]],<ref name="ScotsmanObit" /> and was a member of the [[Royal Over-Seas League]] and [[Association for Women in Communications|Theta Sigma Phi]].<ref name="GaleEntry" /> She went on lecture tours to London and the United States,<ref name="ScotsmanObit" /> and built up a large photographic archive as well as conducting international correspondence on a wide scale.<ref name="ODNBEntry" /> In 1990, the artist Heather O. Catchpole made a watercolour on ivorine portrait miniature of Foskett.<ref name="NGSPortrait">{{cite web|title=Mrs Daphne Foskett, Mrs Reginald Foskett, 1911 – 1998. Art historian and collector|url=https://www.nationalgalleries.org/art-and-artists/58724/mrs-daphne-foskett-mrs-reginald-foskett-1911-1998-art-historian-and-collector|publisher=[[National Galleries of Scotland]]|access-date=10 August 2020|url-status=live|archive-date=4 August 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200804063110/https://www.nationalgalleries.org/art-and-artists/58724/mrs-daphne-foskett-mrs-reginald-foskett-1911-1998-art-historian-and-collector}}</ref>
==Personal life==
Foskett was a member of the [[Church of England]].<ref name="GaleEntry" /> She was married to the curate and bishop [[Reginald Foskett]] from 7 April 1937 until his death in 1973.<ref name="ODNBEntry" /> They had two daughters.<ref name="GaleEntry" /> She died in the Solihull Parkway Hospital on 15 June 1998.<ref name="ODNBEntry" />
==Legacy== According to Stephen Lloyd in Foskett's ''[[Dictionary of National Biography]]'' entry and obituary in ''[[The Scotsman]]'', she had succeeded in bringing portrait miniatures closer to art collectors, art connoisseurs and the general public.<ref name="ODNBEntry" /><ref name="ScotsmanObit" /> Following her death, her photographic archive and much of her art collection was placed on long-term loan at the [[Scottish National Portrait Gallery]], Edinburgh in 2003.<ref name="EEN2003" /> Her miniatures were catalogued in the same year,<ref name="EEN2003">{{cite news|date=25 March 2003|title=Miniatures get a rare showing in Capital|page=9|work=[[Edinburgh Evening News]]|url=https://www.proquest.com/docview/327717974|access-date=10 August 2020|id={{ProQuest|327717974}}}}</ref> as well as the watercolour portrait of Foskett being presented to the Scottish National Portrait Gallery.<ref name="NGSPortrait" />
==References== {{reflist|30em}}
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Foskett, Daphne}} [[Category:1911 births]] [[Category:1998 deaths]] [[Category:People from Sevenoaks]] [[Category:People from Test Valley]] [[Category:20th-century English historians]] [[Category:Art writers]] [[Category:20th-century English women writers]] [[Category:English women non-fiction writers]] [[Category:British women art historians]] [[Category:Writers from Hampshire]] [[Category:Writers from Kent]]