Levina Teerlinc (1510s – 23 June 1576) was a

Flemish Flemish (''Vlaams'') is a Low Franconian dialect cluster of the Dutch language. It is sometimes referred to as Flemish Dutch (), Belgian Dutch ( ), or Southern Dutch (). Flemish is native to Flanders, a historical region in northern Belgium; ...

Renaissance

miniaturist A portrait miniature is a miniature portrait painting, usually executed in gouache, watercolor, or enamel. Portrait miniatures developed out of the techniques of the miniatures in illuminated manuscripts, and were popular among 16th-century eli ...

who served as a painter to the English court of Henry VIII,

Edward VI Edward VI (12 October 1537 – 6 July 1553) was King of England and Ireland from 28 January 1547 until his death in 1553. He was crowned on 20 February 1547 at the age of nine. Edward was the son of Henry VIII and Jane Seymour and the first E ...

Mary I Mary I (18 February 1516 – 17 November 1558), also known as Mary Tudor, and as "Bloody Mary" by her Protestant opponents, was Queen of England and Ireland from July 1553 and Queen of Spain from January 1556 until her death in 1558. She ...

and

Elizabeth I Elizabeth I (7 September 153324 March 1603) was Queen of England and Ireland from 17 November 1558 until her death in 1603. Elizabeth was the last of the five House of Tudor monarchs and is sometimes referred to as the "Virgin Queen". El ...

. She was the most important miniaturist at the English court between

Hans Holbein the Younger Hans Holbein the Younger ( , ; german: Hans Holbein der Jüngere; – between 7 October and 29 November 1543) was a Germans, German-Swiss people, Swiss painter and printmaker who worked in a Northern Renaissance style, and is considered o ...

and

Nicholas Hilliard Nicholas Hilliard () was an English goldsmith and limner best known for his portrait miniatures of members of the courts of Elizabeth I and James I of England. He mostly painted small oval miniatures, but also some larger cabinet miniatures, ...

. Her father,

Simon Bening Simon Bening (c. 1483 – 1561) was a Flemish miniaturist, generally regarded as the last major artist of the Netherlandish tradition. Bening, born either in Ghent or Antwerp, was probably trained by his father, illuminator Alexander Bening, i ...

was a renowned book illuminator and

miniature A miniature is a small-scale reproduction, or a small version. It may refer to: * Portrait miniature, a miniature portrait painting * Miniature art, miniature painting, engraving and sculpture * Miniature (chess), a masterful chess game or probl ...

painter of the

Ghent-Bruges school The Ghent-Bruges School is a manner or movement of manuscript illumination from about 1475 to about 1550 that developed in southern Netherlands, now Belgium. The term was first used in 1891 by Joseph Destree, author of ''Recherches sur les elumin ...

and probably trained her as a manuscript painter. She may have worked in her father's workshop before her marriage.

Biography

Teerlinc was born in

Bruges Bruges ( , nl, Brugge ) is the capital and largest City status in Belgium, city of the Provinces of Belgium, province of West Flanders in the Flemish Region of Belgium, in the northwest of the country, and the sixth-largest city of the countr ...

Flanders Flanders (, ; Dutch: ''Vlaanderen'' ) is the Flemish-speaking northern portion of Belgium and one of the communities, regions and language areas of Belgium. However, there are several overlapping definitions, including ones related to culture, ...

(which is now a part of

Belgium Belgium, ; french: Belgique ; german: Belgien officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a country in Northwestern Europe. The country is bordered by the Netherlands to the north, Germany to the east, Luxembourg to the southeast, France to th ...

) in the 1510s, one of five daughters of renowned miniaturist

and granddaughter of Catherine van der Goes (closely related to

Hugo van der Goes Hugo van der Goes (c. 1430/1440 – 1482) was one of the most significant and original Early Netherlandish painting, Flemish painters of the late 15th century. Van der Goes was an important painter of altarpieces as well as portraits. He introduce ...

) and

Alexander Bening Alexander Bening (died 1519), also Sanders Bening, was an early 16th-century miniature painter of the Ghent-Bruges school and Netherlandish tradition. His date of birth is unknown. Bening was part of a South Netherlandish family of illuminators. ...

. After marrying George Teerlinc of Blanckenberge in 1545, Teerlinc left for England, and is documented there by 1546, when she became court painter to the Tudor court, serving Henry VIII,

, and

. She received an annual salary of £40 from 1546 until her death in 1576, as granted by Henry VIII and recorded by

Lodovico Guicciardini Lodovico Guicciardini (19 August 1521 – 22 March 1589) was an Italian writer and merchant from Florence who lived primarily in Antwerp from 1542 or earlier. He was the nephew of historian and diplomat Francesco Guicciardini. ''Description of ...

(1567), which was more than was provided to

Holbein Hans Holbein may refer to: * Hans Holbein the Elder Hans Holbein the Elder ( , ; german: Hans Holbein der Ältere; – 1524) was a German painter. Life Holbein was born in free imperial city of Augsburg (Germany), and died in Issenheim, Alsa ...

.Strong:52 She was the only female painter in the court of Henry VIII, although Catherine Parr was said to have employed three women miniature painters and these were

Susannah Hornebolt Susanna(h) Hornebolt or Horenbout (1503–c.1554) was the first known female artist in England
HistoryofWomen.org (H ...

, Levina Teerlinc and

Margaret Holsewyther Margaret Holsewyther (born c. 1504 - died after 1560) was an English miniaturist employed by Tudor monarchs. Her husbands were paid for her work making the provenance of her work difficult to ascertain. She was working over the reigns of four mona ...

. Queen Mary gave her a New Year's day gift of a gilt silver salt in 1556 and she gave the queen a small picture of the

Trinity The Christian doctrine of the Trinity (, from 'threefold') is the central dogma concerning the nature of God in most Christian churches, which defines one God existing in three coequal, coeternal, consubstantial divine persons: God the F ...

. In 1559 Teerlinc was appointed tutor in painting to the King's daughter at the Spanish Court. She and her husband had one son, Marcus. She died in

Stepney, London Stepney is a district in the East End of London in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets. The district is no longer officially defined, and is usually used to refer to a relatively small area. However, for much of its history the place name appli ...

on 23 June 1576.

Works

No surviving works have been confirmed as Teerlinc's. Yet she was one of the most well-documented artists at court in

miniature painting Miniature painting may refer to: * Miniature (illuminated manuscript), a small illustration used to decorate an illuminated manuscript * Persian miniature, a small painting on paper in the Persian tradition, for a book or album * Ottoman miniature, ...

, providing various portraits of

in the years 1559, 1562, 1563, 1564, 1567 ("a full-length portrait"), 1568 ("with

Knight A knight is a person granted an honorary title of knighthood by a head of state (including the Pope) or representative for service to the monarch, the church or the country, especially in a military capacity. Knighthood finds origins in the Gr ...

s of the Order"), 1575 ("with other personages"), and 1576. She also painted for

in 1556 as a New Year gift "a small picture of the trynitie". Teerlinc is best known for her pivotal position in the rise of the portrait miniature. She might have trained

, by training a

goldsmith A goldsmith is a Metalworking, metalworker who specializes in working with gold and other precious metals. Nowadays they mainly specialize in jewelry-making but historically, goldsmiths have also made cutlery, silverware, platter (dishware), pl ...

, in the methods of miniature portraiture. Attributing Teerlinc's works is challenging because she did not always sign them. However, there are a few existing paintings that are suspected to be Teerlinc's due to the fact she was the only active miniaturist of prominence in English court between

in 1543 and

in the 1570s. Some scholars also speculate that many of the miniatures were lost in the fire at

Whitehall Whitehall is a road and area in the City of Westminster, Central London. The road forms the first part of the A roads in Zone 3 of the Great Britain numbering scheme, A3212 road from Trafalgar Square to Chelsea, London, Chelsea. It is the main ...

. A 1983 exhibition at the

Victoria and Albert Museum The Victoria and Albert Museum (often abbreviated as the V&A) in London is the world's largest museum of applied arts, decorative arts and design, housing a permanent collection of over 2.27 million objects. It was founded in 1852 and nam ...

represented "the first occasion when a group of miniatures has been assembled which can be attributed to Levina Teerlinc". Since the exhibition also performed the same function for her predecessor as court miniaturist, Lucas Hornebolte, it was especially useful in developing consensus on attributions. Five miniatures and two illuminated manuscript sheets were in the group, including a miniature of

Lady Katherine Grey Katherine Seymour, Countess of Hertford (formerly Katherine Herbert, Lady Herbert, born Lady Katherine Grey; 25 August 1540 – 27 January 1568), was a younger sister of Lady Jane Grey. A granddaughter of Henry VIII's sister Mary, she emerged ...

from the V&A, and others from the

Yale Center for British Art Yale University is a private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. Established in 1701 as the Collegiate School, it is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and among the most prestigious in the worl ...

, the

Royal Collection The Royal Collection of the British royal family is the largest private art collection in the world. Spread among 13 occupied and historic royal residences in the United Kingdom, the collection is owned by King Charles III and overseen by the ...

(both of these possibly of the young Elizabeth I, and private collections). Strong considered there was "a convincing group of miniatures that emerge as the work of a single hand, one whose draughtsmanship is weak, whose paint is thin and transparent and whose brushwork loose". She also probably designed the

Great Seal of England The Great Seal of the Realm or Great Seal of the United Kingdom (known prior to the Treaty of Union of 1707 as the Great Seal of England; and from then until the Union of 1801 as the Great Seal of Great Britain) is a seal that is used to sym ...

for

and the earliest one used by Elizabeth (in the 1540s).

Partial list of works

*Levina Teerlinc, ''Portrait of Lady Katherine Grey'', About 1555–60, Victoria and Albert Museum, Museum no. P.10-1979 *Levina Teerlinc, ''Portrait of a Young Woman'', 1566, Victoria and Albert Museum, Museum no. P.21-1954 *Levina Teerlinc, ''Portrait of Mary Dudley, Lady Sidney'', ca.1575, Victoria and Albert Museum, Museum no. E.1170-1988 *Levina Teerlinc?, ''Portrait of Queen Mary I'', Collection of the Duke of Buccleuch *Levina Teerlinc?, ''Portrait of a Young Woman'', Collection of H.M. the Queen, Windsor Castle *Levina Teerlinc?, ''Portrait of Elizabeth I in State Robes'', Collection of Welbeck Abbey

Notes

References

* *Harris, Anne Sutherland and

Linda Nochlin Linda Nochlin (''née'' Weinberg; January 30, 1931 – October 29, 2017) was an American art historian, Lila Acheson Wallace Professor Emerita of Modern Art at New York University Institute of Fine Arts, and writer. As a prominent feminist art h ...

, ''Women Artists: 1550-1950'',

Los Angeles County Museum of Art The Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) is an art museum located on Wilshire Boulevard in the Miracle Mile, Los Angeles, California, Miracle Mile vicinity of Los Angeles. LACMA is on Museum Row, adjacent to the La Brea Tar Pits (George C. Pa ...

, Knopf, New York, 1976. * Strong, Roy: ''Artists of the Tudor Court: The Portrait Miniature Rediscovered, 1520-1620'', Victoria & Albert Museum exhibition catalogue, 1983, {{DEFAULTSORT:Teerlinc, Levina 1510 births Flemish portrait painters Portrait miniaturists Belgian women painters 16th-century births 1576 deaths 16th-century English women Court painters 16th-century English painters People from Stepney Artists from Bruges Belgian expatriates in England

Biography

Works

Partial list of works

See also

Notes

References