About Emma

Emma Rutherford is a freelance art historian specialising in portrait miniatures and silhouettes. Her clients include Philip Mould & Co., the National Portrait Gallery and a number of major institutions nationwide.

Emma has close working relationships with museum and gallery curators, as well as conservators and restorers. She has conducted many significant private and public valuations and private treaty sales. She has also made several television appearances and advises the Antiques Roadshow.

Emma began her career working in the Victoria and Albert Museum whilst completing an MA in Victorian Art and Architecture. She set up the Portrait Miniatures Department at Phillip's Auctioneers and after the amalgamation of Phillips and Bonhams she became Departmental Director. During her time in the auction world, Emma sourced and handled the Albion Collection.

From 2007 to December 2022, Emma ran a portrait miniatures consultancy at Philip Mould & Co., London. Emma curated and co-curated many exhibitions of portrait miniatures at the gallery, most recently “Without Hands”; The Art of Sarah Biffin (1 November - 21 December 2022). Other exhibitions with Philip Mould & Co. include Love’s Labour’s Found (2021), Jewel in the Hand; Early Portrait Miniatures from Private and Noble Collections (2019), Charles Dickens, The Lost Portrait (2018/19), John Smart; A Genius Magnified (2014), Warts and All; The Portrait Miniatures of Samuel Cooper (2013) and Secret Faces (2008).

Emma's significant discoveries include a cabinet portrait of Lady Arbella Stuart by Nicholas Hilliard in 2024; signed portrait of King of France Henri III by Jean Decourt in 2020; the earliest known European portrait miniature of a black sitter, a portrait of Prince Zaga Christ by Giovanni Garzoni in 2019, now at the Allen Memorial Art Museum; and a lost portrait miniature of Charles Dickens in 2017, now at the Charles Dickens Museum.

Emma is a member of the specialist British Art Network and a trustee of The Drug of Art charity.

Browse books and exhibition catalogues here.