Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Zincke, Christian Friedrich
ZINCKE, CHRISTIAN FRIEDRICH (1684?–1767), enamel-painter, was born in Dresden about 1684, and was the son of a goldsmith there. He came to England in 1706, when he became a pupil of Charles Boit [q. v.] the enameller. His small portraits in enamel became very popular, and he was extensively patronised by royalty and fashionable people. Frederick, prince of Wales, appointed him his cabinet-painter, and he was also employed by George II and Queen Caroline. He painted several enamels for Sir Robert Walpole, chiefly members of the family; a good enamel of Sir Robert Walpole from Strawberry Hill is at Knowsley, and one of Horace Walpole was purchased by the Earl of Waldegrave. So great was the vogue of Zincke that he was able to raise his price for a small enamel to thirty guineas.
The enamel portraits by Zincke are very carefully and minutely finished, but lack both in colouring and arrangement the grace and tenderness of Petitot. They have, however, been justly admired, and are to be met with in many private collections. Several appear to be copied from portraits by Sir Godfrey Kneller or Michael Dahl. Zincke lived in Covent Garden, but about 1746 he retired from his profession and settled in South Lambeth, where he died on 24 March 1767. After he had retired he was specially commissioned by Mme. de Pompadour to execute a portrait of Louis XV from a picture sent over from France for that purpose. Young the poet, in his ‘Love of Fame’ (sat. 6), says:
You here in miniature your picture see,
Nor hope from Zincke more justice than from me.
Zincke was twice married. He was painted, with his first wife, by H. Huyssing, a picture engraved in mezzotint by J. Faber. By her he had one son and a daughter. The second wife, Elizabeth, survived him at Lambeth. The grandson, Paul Francis Zincke, practised in London as a copyist, forged various portraits of Shakespeare, Milton, and other celebrities, and died miserably in Windmill Street, London, in 1830. Paul Christian Zincke, younger brother of the above, came with him to London, but afterwards removed to Vienna, and later to Leipzig, where he settled, founded a drawing-school, and died blind in 1770.
[Walpole's Anecdotes of Painting, ed. Wornum; Graves and Armstrong's Dict. of Painters and Engravers; Rouquet's State of the Arts in Great Britain; Foster's British Miniature Painters.]