Object number

LDVAL 41

Date

c. 1660 – 1665

Physical description

Bust length portrait of a man turned to his right. He is wearing a plain, dark blue/black coat, at the neck of which has crimson waistcoat underneath can be seen. He is also wearing a broad white collar, which sits over the collar of his coat. He has a thin strip of grey beard under his lower lip, running down to his chin. He has thinning, collar length brown hair. Set on a plain, dark background.

Condition

Notes

Sir Peter Lely (1618 – 80) Portrait painter and collector of Old Masters’ prints and drawings, active in England from the early 1640s. Born in Westphalia to Dutch parents whose real name was van der Faess, he trained in Haarlem and in 1637 became a Master of the Haarlem Guild. Little is known of his work prior to his arrival to London. He became a freeman of the Painter-Stainers’ Company in 1647 and his early English paintings were influenced by Van Dyck and Dutch baroque style. They were mainly mythological scenes (e.g., ‘Nymphs by a Fountain’, Dulwich Picture Gallery, London) and portraits set in landscape, often in pastoral mood, for which he became famous. Lely quickly established himself as a portraitist to Charles I. Swiftly changing his patrons, his reputation and fortune grew steadily and after the execution of the king he served under Oliver Cromwell and his son. In 1660 Charles II appointed Lely his Principal Painter in Ordinary. He was naturalized in 1662. Although his works vary in quality, and in some he was greatly assisted by his pupils, he is regarded as a leading artist of the Restoration. Lely was a master colourist, his style best manifested in exquisite draperies. His portraiture flatters sitters. The ‘Windsor Beauties’, a series of painted ladies at Hampton Court, show voluptuous and dreamy figures while the ‘Flagmen of Lowestoft’, of which the majority are now in the National Maritime Museum, London, display his talent in portraying characters at its best. These show 12 of the admirals and senior captains who fought under James, Duke of York, at the first action of the second Anglo-Dutch War in 1665. Two, of Prince Rupert and the original of ‘Sir John Lawson’ (copy at Greenwich), remain in the Royal Collection, from which the others were presented to the Naval Gallery of Greenwich Hospital by George IV in 1824. Lely was knighted shortly before his death.

Type

Portrait Painting

Size

Whole height: 950mm
width: 830mm
Canvas height: 730mm
width: 600mm

Collection type

Visual arts, Fanshawe Portraits

Objects that are not on display in the museum can be viewed by appointment at the discretion of the Museum Curator. To find out more about accessing the collection please email: valencehousemuseum@lbbd.gov.uk or telephone: 020 8227 2034

Gallery

Metadata
Start date	c. 1660
End date	1665
Institution	Valence House Museum
Type	Portrait Painting
Collection type	Visual arts Fanshawe Portraits