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This portrait miniature of Elizabeth, Queen of Bohemia is painted in watercolor on vellum that has been adhered to a playing card. The card’s printed club motif is visible on the miniature’s reverse.

This work has been extensively retouched and reworked. As a result, it is difficult to discuss the artist’s technique. It appears that Oliver modelled Elizabeth’s flesh using soft stippled strokes of red, brown, and blue paint, though much of the blue tone in her skin is the result of later overpainting. Oliver applied a thin wash of light brown paint to form the shape of the hair. He then painted a tight network of curved strokes of darker brown paint and dots of azurite blue to represent Elizabeth’s nest of soft curls. The artist stippled the paint at the hairline to create a gradation between flesh and hair.

Elizabeth’s ruff was first blocked in with a wash of creamy white modelled with light grey. The artist then used lead white to trace individual threads of lace. The purple dress, which remains in good condition, was painted with a mixture of red lake and azurite pigment. Isaac adorned this dress with patterns painted with shell-silver as well as floral motifs painted in green, orange, and blue. Both the sitter’s pearl necklace and earring are heavily overpainted. There is no evidence of a gold border around the work’s azurite background, but Oliver’s "IO" monogram is painted using shell gold above the sitter’s right shoulder.

There are losses in the sitter’s lace collar, the jewelry has been re-worked, and there is retouching throughout Elizabeth’s face.

Painting Conservation, 2023