Sir Peter Lely (14 September 1618 – 7 December 1680) was a painter of Dutch origin whose career was nearly all spent in England, where he became the dominant portrait painter to the court.

Life

Lely was born Pieter van der Faes to Dutch parents in Soest in

Westphalia Westphalia (; german: Westfalen ; nds, Westfalen ) is a region of northwestern Germany and one of the three historic parts of the state of North Rhine-Westphalia. It has an area of and 7.9 million inhabitants. The territory of the regio ...

, where his father was an officer serving in the armed forces of the

Elector of Brandenburg This article lists the Margraves and Electors of Brandenburg during the period of time that Brandenburg was a constituent state of the Holy Roman Empire. The Mark, or ''March'', of Brandenburg was one of the primary constituent states of the Hol ...

. Lely studied painting in Haarlem, where he may have been apprenticed to

Pieter de Grebber Pieter Fransz de Grebber (c.1600–1652/3Between September 24, 1652, and January 29, 1653) was a Dutch Golden Age painter. Life De Grebber was born in Haarlem, the oldest son of Frans Pietersz de Grebber (1573–1643), a painter and embr ...

. He became a master of the

Guild of Saint Luke The Guild of Saint Luke was the most common name for a city guild for painters and other artists in early modern Europe, especially in the Low Countries. They were named in honor of the Evangelist Luke, the patron saint of artists, who was ide ...

in Haarlem in 1637. He is reputed to have adopted the surname "Lely" (also occasionally spelled Lilly) from a

heraldic Heraldry is a discipline relating to the design, display and study of armorial bearings (known as armory), as well as related disciplines, such as vexillology, together with the study of ceremony, rank and pedigree. Armory, the best-known branc ...

lily ''Lilium'' () is a genus of Herbaceous plant, herbaceous flowering plants growing from bulbs, all with large prominent flowers. They are the true lilies. Lilies are a group of flowering plants which are important in culture and literature in mu ...

on the

gable A gable is the generally triangular portion of a wall between the edges of intersecting roof pitches. The shape of the gable and how it is detailed depends on the structural system used, which reflects climate, material availability, and aesth ...

of the house where his father was born in

The Hague The Hague ( ; nl, Den Haag or ) is a city and municipality of the Netherlands, situated on the west coast facing the North Sea. The Hague is the country's administrative centre and its seat of government, and while the official capital o ...

. He arrived in

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

in around 1643, His early English paintings, mainly mythological or religious scenes, or portraits set in a pastoral landscape, show influences from Anthony van Dyck and the Dutch

baroque The Baroque (, ; ) is a style of architecture, music, dance, painting, sculpture, poetry, and other arts that flourished in Europe from the early 17th century until the 1750s. In the territories of the Spanish and Portuguese empires including t ...

. Lely's portraits were well received, and he succeeded Anthony van Dyck (who had died in 1641) as the most fashionable portrait artist in England. He became a freeman of the

Painter-Stainers' Company The Worshipful Company of Painter-Stainers is one of the livery companies of the City of London. An organisation of painters of metals and wood is known to have existed as early as 1283. A similar organisation of stainers, who generally worked o ...

in 1647 and was portrait artist to

Charles I Charles I may refer to: Kings and emperors * Charlemagne (742–814), numbered Charles I in the lists of Holy Roman Emperors and French kings * Charles I of Anjou (1226–1285), also king of Albania, Jerusalem, Naples and Sicily * Charles I of ...

. His talent ensured that his career was not interrupted by Charles's execution, and he served

Oliver Cromwell Oliver Cromwell (25 April 15993 September 1658) was an English politician and military officer who is widely regarded as one of the most important statesmen in English history. He came to prominence during the 1639 to 1651 Wars of the Three Ki ...

, whom he painted "warts and all", and

Richard Cromwell Richard Cromwell (4 October 162612 July 1712) was an English statesman who was the second and last Lord Protector of the Commonwealth of England, Scotland and Ireland and son of the first Lord Protector, Oliver Cromwell. On his father's deat ...

. In the years around 1650 the poet Sir Richard Lovelace wrote two poems about Lely – ''Peinture'' and "See what a clouded majesty ..." After the

English Restoration The Restoration of the Stuart monarchy in the kingdoms of England, Scotland and Ireland took place in 1660 when King Charles II returned from exile in continental Europe. The preceding period of the Protectorate and the civil wars came to ...

in 1660, Lely was appointed as Charles II's

Principal Painter in Ordinary The title of Principal Painter in Ordinary to the King or Queen of England or, later, Great Britain, was awarded to a number of artists, nearly all mainly portraitists. It was different from the role of Serjeant Painter, and similar to the earlie ...

in 1661, with a stipend of £200 per year, as Van Dyck had enjoyed in the previous Stuart reign. Lely became a naturalised English subject in 1662. The young Robert Hooke came to London to follow an apprenticeship with Lely before being given a place at

Westminster School (God Gives the Increase) , established = Earliest records date from the 14th century, refounded in 1560 , type = Public school Independent day and boarding school , religion = Church of England , head_label = Hea ...

Richard Busby Richard Busby (; 22 September 1606 – 6 April 1695) was an English Anglican priest who served as head master of Westminster School for more than fifty-five years. Among the more illustrious of his pupils were Christopher Wren, Robert Hooke, Rob ...

. Demand was high, and Lely and his large workshop were prolific. After Lely painted a sitter's head, Lely's pupils would often complete the portrait in one of a series of numbered poses. As a result, Lely is the first English painter who has left "an enormous mass of work", although the quality of studio pieces is variable. As Brian Sewell put it: Among his most famous paintings are a series of 10 portraits of ladies from the Royal court, known as the

Windsor Beauties The Windsor Beauties are a set of portrait paintings, still in the Royal Collection, by Sir Peter Lely and his workshop, produced in the early to mid-1660s, that depict ladies of the court of King Charles II, some of whom were his mistresse ...

, formerly at

Windsor Castle Windsor Castle is a royal residence at Windsor in the English county of Berkshire. It is strongly associated with the English and succeeding British royal family, and embodies almost a millennium of architectural history. The original c ...

but now at Hampton Court Palace; a similar series for

Althorp Althorp (popularly pronounced ) is a Grade I listed stately home and estate in the civil parish of Althorp, in West Northamptonshire, England of about . By road it is about northwest of the county town of Northampton and about northwest of ...

; a series of 12 of the admirals and captains who fought in the

Second Anglo-Dutch War The Second Anglo-Dutch War or the Second Dutch War (4 March 1665 – 31 July 1667; nl, Tweede Engelse Oorlog "Second English War") was a conflict between England and the Dutch Republic partly for control over the seas and trade routes, whe ...

, known as the "

Flagmen of Lowestoft The ''Flagmen of Lowestoft'' are a collection of thirteen paintings by Peter Lely, Sir Peter Lely, painted in the mid-1660s. They were originally part of the Royal Collections, though most were given to Greenwich Hospital, London, Greenwich Hosp ...

", now mostly owned by the

National Maritime Museum The National Maritime Museum (NMM) is a maritime museum in Greenwich, London. It is part of Royal Museums Greenwich, a network of museums in the Maritime Greenwich World Heritage Site. Like other publicly funded national museums in the Unite ...

Greenwich Greenwich ( , ,) is a town in south-east London, England, within the ceremonial county of Greater London. It is situated east-southeast of Charing Cross. Greenwich is notable for its maritime history and for giving its name to the Greenwich ...

; and his '' Susannah and the Elders'' at Burghley House. His most famous non-portrait work is probably ''Nymphs by a Fountain'' in

Dulwich Picture Gallery Dulwich Picture Gallery is an art gallery in Dulwich, South London, which opened to the public in 1817. It was designed by Regency architect Sir John Soane using an innovative and influential method of illumination. Dulwich is the oldest pub ...

. Lely played a significant role in introducing the

mezzotint Mezzotint is a monochrome printmaking process of the '' intaglio'' family. It was the first printing process that yielded half-tones without using line- or dot-based techniques like hatching, cross-hatching or stipple. Mezzotint achieves tonal ...

to Britain, as he realized its possibilities for publicising his portraits. He encouraged Dutch mezzotinters to come to Britain to copy his work, laying the foundations for the English mezzotint tradition. Lely lived from about 1651 to 1680 at No. 10-11 Great Piazza,

Covent Garden Covent Garden is a district in London, on the eastern fringes of the West End, between St Martin's Lane and Drury Lane. It is associated with the former fruit-and-vegetable market in the central square, now a popular shopping and tourist si ...

. He was knighted in 1679. Lely died soon afterwards at his

easel An easel is an upright support used for displaying and/or fixing something resting upon it, at an angle of about 20° to the vertical. In particular, easels are traditionally used by painters to support a painting while they work on it, normally ...

in Covent Garden, while painting a portrait of the Duchess of Somerset. Sir Peter was buried at St Paul's Church, Covent Garden. Lely, Sir Peter - Nymphs by a Fountain - Google Art Project

Lely, Sir Peter - Nymphs by a Fountain - Google Art Project

Legacy

In his lifetime, Lely was known as a skillful connoisseur of art. His collection of

Old Master In art history, "Old Master" (or "old master")Old Masters De ...

s, including Veronese,

Titian Tiziano Vecelli or Vecellio (; 27 August 1576), known in English as Titian ( ), was an Italian (Venetian) painter of the Renaissance, considered the most important member of the 16th-century Venetian school. He was born in Pieve di Cadore, nea ...

, Claude Lorrain and Rubens, and a fabulous collection of drawings, was broken up and sold after his death, raising the immense sum of £26,000. Some items in it which had been acquired by Lely from the Commonwealth dispersal of Charles I's art collections, such as the Lely Venus, were re-acquired by the Royal Collection. Amongst Lely's pupils were John Greenhill and

Willem Wissing Willem Wissing, known in England as William Wissing (1656 – 10 September 1687), was a Dutch portrait artist who worked in England. He was born in either Amsterdam or The Hague, and studied at The Hague under Willem Doudijns (1630–97) and ...

. He was replaced as court portraitist by Sir Godfrey Kneller, also a German-born Dutchman, whose style drew from Lely's but reflecting later Continental trends. Between them they established the basic English portrait style followed by less fashionable painters for decades. A horse was also named after him, finishing fourth in the 1996 Grand National.

Style

Lely was first and foremost a

portraitist A portrait is a painting, photograph, sculpture, or other artistic representation of a person, in which the face and its expressions are predominant. The intent is to display the likeness, personality, and even the mood of the person. For this re ...

. He painted both men and women, but with a greater inclination towards the latter, whose cleavage was often accentuated, sometimes to the point of having one

breast The breast is one of two prominences located on the upper ventral region of a primate's torso. Both females and males develop breasts from the same embryological tissues. In females, it serves as the mammary gland, which produces and sec ...

fully exposed (such as in

Margaret Hughes Margaret Hughes (29 May 1630 – 1 October 1719), also Peg Hughes or Margaret Hewes, was an English actress who is often credited as the first professional actress on the English stage, as a result of her appearance on 8 December 1660. Hughes ...

's earlier portrait, seen below). Lely also occasionally painted certain historical scenes, seen above. The loss in 1929 of a "family portrait by Sir Peter Lely" was reported in the fire at Pit House, Farley Heath, Albury.

Gallery

Earl and Countess Oxford.jpg, Earl and Countess of Oxford Portrait of Sir Robert Worsley.jpg, Sir Robert Worsley, 3rd Baronet Lady Mary Fane.jpg, Lady Mary Fane by Sir Peter Lely Lely Queen Mary II.jpg, Queen Mary II Peter Lely - Portrait of a man, thought to be George Booth, Lord Delamere - Google Art Project.jpg, Portrait of a man, thought to be George Booth, Lord Delamere, 1660 Sir Peter Lely - Portrait of Lady Elizabeth Strickland, née Pile - Google Art Project.jpg, Portrait of Lady Elizabeth Strickland, née Pile Catherine of Braganza, Queen of England.jpg,

Catherine of Braganza Catherine of Braganza ( pt, Catarina de Bragança; 25 November 1638 – 31 December 1705) was Queen of England, Scotland and Ireland during her marriage to King Charles II, which lasted from 21 May 1662 until his death on 6 February 1685. She ...

, Queen of England 1665 Lely, Sir Peter - Portrait of a Lady with a Blue Drape - Google Art Project.jpg, Portrait of a Lady with a Blue Drape, circa 1660 Abraham Cowley by Sir Peter Lely.jpg, Abraham Cowley, c. 1665–66 Sir Peter Lely 002.jpg, Two ladies from the Lake family, 1650. Peter Lely - Diana Kirke, later Countess of Oxford - Google Art Project.jpg, Diana Kirke, later Countess of Oxford, 1665 Lely, Sir Peter - A Boy as a Shepherd - Google Art Project.jpg, A Boy as a Shepherd Charles II of England.jpeg, Charles II of England, c. 1675 Jane, Duchess of Norfolk.jpg,

Jane Howard, Duchess of Norfolk Jane Howard, Duchess of Norfolk (née Bickerton; 1643/44 – 28 August 1693), was the second wife of Henry Howard, 6th Duke of Norfolk. Bickerton came from a very modest social background. Her parents were Anne Hester and Robert Bickerton, Gentle ...

Dudleia Cullum, née North, Lady Cullum.jpeg, Dudley, Daughter of Sr. Henry North, Bart., Wife of Sir Thomas Cullum Sir Thomas Fanshawe of Jenkins (1628–1705) and His Wife, Margaret (1635–1674).jpeg, Sir Thomas Fanshawe of Jenkins and his wife Margaret Barbara Palmer (née Villiers), Duchess of Cleveland with her son, Charles Fitzroy, as Madonna and Child by Sir Peter Lely (2).jpg, Madonna and Child by Sir Peter Lely Sir William Ashburnham by Peter Lely.jpg, Sir William Ashburnham Peter Lely - Lady Frances Savile, Later Lady Brudenell - Google Art Project.jpg, Lady Frances Savile, Later Lady Brudenell Lely - Portrait of an Unknown Woman - Tate.jpg, Portrait of

c. 1670. Charlotte Fitzroy painted by Peter Lely.jpg, Portrait of

Charlotte Lee, Countess of Lichfield Charlotte Lee, Countess of Lichfield (5 September 1664 – 17 February 1718), formerly Lady Charlotte Fitzroy, was the illegitimate daughter of King Charles II of England by one of his best known mistresses, Barbara Villiers, 1st Duchess of ...

1674

Citations

General references

* * * * The entry includes a bibliography. * * * *

External links

The Oliver Millar Archive
research papers of

Oliver Millar Sir Oliver Nicholas Millar (26 April 1923 – 10 May 2007) was a British art historian. He was an expert on 17th-century British painting, and a leading authority on Anthony van Dyck in particular. He served in the Royal Household for 41 year ...

, British art historian and a leading authority on Peter Lely *
Self-portrait
from the National Portrait Gallery
Biography
from the

J. Paul Getty Museum The J. Paul Getty Museum, commonly referred to as the Getty, is an art museum in Los Angeles, California housed on two campuses: the Getty Center and Getty Villa. The Getty Center is located in the Brentwood neighborhood of Los Angeles and fea ...

Biography
from the

, Greenwich
Biography
from the

Web Gallery of Art The Web Gallery of Art (WGA) is a virtual art gallery website. It displays historic European visual art, mainly from the Baroque, Gothic and Renaissance periods, available for educational and personal use. Overview The website contains reprodu ...

Sir Peter Lely at the WikiGallery.org

History collection
from Frits Lugt's ''Les marques de collections de dessins & d'estampes''
Nympths by a Fountain
from the

{{DEFAULTSORT:Lely, Peter 1618 births 1680 deaths People from Soest, Germany 17th-century English painters English male painters Knights Bachelor British Baroque painters Principal Painters in Ordinary Dutch Golden Age painters Dutch male painters Painters from Haarlem German emigrants to the Dutch Republic Dutch emigrants to the Kingdom of England