Peter Lely

Sir Peter Lely (14 September, 1618 - 30 November, 1680) was a painter of Dutch origin. He was the most popular portrait artist in England from soon after he arrived in the country in the 1640s to his death. He also owned a major collection of art, especially drawings by other artists.

Lely was born Pieter van der Faes to Dutch parents in Soest in Westphalia, [Ellis Waterhouse, "Painting in Britain, 1530-1790", 1953, Penguin Books (now Yale History of Art series)] where his father was an officer serving in the armed forces of the Elector of Brandenburg. Lely studied painting in Haarlem, where he may have been apprenticed to Pieter de Grebber. He become a master of the Guild of Saint Luke in Haarlem in 1637. He is reputed to have adopted the surname "Lely" (also occasionally spelled Lilly) from a heraldic lily on the gable of the house where his father was born in The Hague.

He arrived in London in around 1641. 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. Lely's portraits were well received, and he succeeded Van Dyck as the most fashionable portrait artist in England. He became a freeman of the Painter-Stainers' Company in 1647 and was portrait artist to Charles I, but his talent ensured that his career was uninterrupted by Charles's execution, and he served Oliver Cromwell, whom he painted "warts and all", and Richard Cromwell. 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 in 1660, Lely was appointed as Charles II's Principal Painter in Ordinary in 1661, with a stipend of £200 per year, as Van Dyck had enjoyed in the previous Stuart reign. Lely became a naturalised British subject in 1662.

Demand was high, and Lely and his school 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." Among his most famous paintings are a series of 10 portraits of ladies from the Royal court, known as the "Windsor Beauties", formerly at Windsor Castle but now at Hampton Court Palace; a similar series for Althorp; a series of 12 of the admirals and captains who fought in the Second Anglo-Dutch War, known as the "Flagmen of Lowestoft", now mostly owned by the National Maritime Museum in 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.

Lely played a significant role in introducing the mezzotint 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 was knighted in 1680. He died soon afterwards at his easel in Covent Garden, while painting a portrait of the Duchess of Somerset. He was buried at St Paul's Church, Covent Garden. He collected Old Masters during his life, with examples by Veronese, Titian, Claude Lorrain and Rubens, and a fabulous collection of drawings. His collection 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.

References

*Millar, Oliver 'Lely, Sir Peter' (inc. bibliography) "Grove Dictionary of Art", [London: 1996 rpr. 2002] vol. 19, pp. 119-125
*Millar, Oliver 'Sir Peter Lely 1618-80' [London] : National Portrait Gallery, 1978.
*Waterhouse, Ellis. "Painting in Britain 1530 to 1790." Fourth Edition, New York, Viking Penguin, 1978.
*Whinney, Margaret and Millar, Oliver "English Art 1625 - 1714" Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1957.

External links

* [http://www.npg.org.uk/live/search/portrait.asp?LinkID=mp02697&rNo=0&role=sit Self-portrait] from the National Portrait Gallery
* [http://www.getty.edu/art/gettyguide/artMakerDetails?maker=222&page=1 Biography] from the Getty Museum
* [http://www.nmm.ac.uk/mag/pages/mnuInDepth/Biography.cfm?biog=206 Biography] from the National Maritime Museum, Greenwich
* [http://www.wga.hu/frames-e.html?/bio/l/lely/biograph.html Biography] from the Web Gallery of Art