John Bloomfield, Miniature Painter
(d. 1808)
Miniature Painter
From A Dictionary of Irish Artists 1913
Was born in Ship Street, Dublin, and in 1764 entered the Dublin Society's School as a pupil. He appears to have practised as a miniature painter in England for some time. In 1783 he was living at 125 Capel Street, and from that address he issued the following advertisement: "Miniature Painting. Mr. Bloomfield, who has had the honour and advantage of doing the pictures of not only many of the first nobility and gentry in England and Ireland, but some of the most distinguished characters for genius and taste in either Kingdom, will paint portraits—bracelet, locket, or any size—from one to five guineas each." Bloomfield was a man of considerable and varied attainments, and his inexhaustible fund of anecdote rendered him an entertaining companion. His later years were clouded by misfortune which finally brought him to a debtor's prison, where he died suddenly on 21st September, 1808.