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Peter Lely
Born
Pieter van der Faes

(1618-09-14)14 September 1618
Died7 December 1680(1680-12-07) (aged 62)
NationalityDutchEnglish
Known forPainting
Signature

Sir Peter Lely (14 September 1618 – 7 December 1680)[1][2] was a painter of Dutch origin whose career was nearly all spent in England, where he became the dominant portrait painter to the court. He became a naturalised British subject and was knighted in 1679.

Life

Lely was born Pieter van der Faes to Dutch parents in Soest in Westphalia,[3] 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 became 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 1643,[4] 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 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 in 1647 and was portrait artist to Charles I. His talent ensured that his career was not interrupted 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 ..."

Peter Lely – Edward Montagu, 1st Earl of Sandwich

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.[5] 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 by Richard Busby.

Long-time mistress of Charles II of England, Nell Gwynne as Venus, with her son, Charles Beauclerk, as Cupid.[6]

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:

There may well be thousands of these portraits, ranging from rare prime originals of often quite astonishing quality, to crass workshop replicas by assistants drilled to imitate Lely's way with the fashionable face and repeat the stock patterns of the dress, landscapes, flowers, musical instruments and other essential embellishments of portraiture. On Lely's death in 1680 his executors employed a dozen such slaves to complete for sale the many unfinished canvases stacked about his studio. It is these half-and-half and hardly-at-all Lelys that line the corridors of the indigent aristocracy whose houses are now administered by the National Trust, and no sight is more aesthetically and intellectually numbing, unless it is a corridor of Knellers.[7]

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 lived from about 1651 to 1680 at No. 10-11 Great Piazza, Covent Garden. He was knighted in 1679.[2] Lely died soon afterwards at his easel in Covent Garden, while painting a portrait of the Duchess of Somerset. Sir Peter was buried at St Paul's Church, Covent Garden.

Nymphs by a Fountain, an atypical mythological work

Legacy

Susanna and the Elders, 1650–5.

In his lifetime, Lely was known as a skillful connoisseur of art.[2] His collection of Old Masters, including Veronese, Titian, 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.[8] 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.

He was replaced as court portraitist jointly by John Riley and Sir Godfrey Kneller, also a German-born Dutchman, whose style drew from Lely's but reflecting later Continental trends.

A horse was also named after him, finishing fourth in the 1996 Grand National.

Style

Lely was first and foremost a portraitist. 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 fully exposed (such as in Margaret Hughes's earlier portrait, seen below).

The loss in 1929 of a "family portrait by Sir Peter Lely" was reported in the fire at Pit House, Farley Heath, Albury.[9]

Gallery

Citations

  1. ^ "Artist Info". nga.gov. Retrieved 7 January 2023.
  2. ^ a b c "Sir Peter Lely, Dutch Painter". Encyclopædia Britannica. Retrieved 21 December 2018.
  3. ^ Ellis Waterhouse, Painting in Britain, 1530–1790, 1953, Penguin Books (now Yale History of Art series)
  4. ^ Britannica 2018. Dethloff 2009
  5. ^ Sainty, J.C.; Bucholz, R.O. (1997). Officials of the Royal Household, 1660–1837: Department of the Lord Chamberlain and associated offices. Office-holders in modern Britain. University of London, Institute of Historical Research. p. 51. ISBN 978-1-871348-40-8. Retrieved 1 May 2019. In 1660 Lely was appointed 'Limner and Picture Drawer', being succeeded in 1681 by Riley as 'Painter and Picture Drawer'.
  6. ^ Hamilton, Adrian (16 April 2012). "Carry on, your majesty: Charles II and his court ladies". The Independent. Archived from the original on 18 June 2022. Retrieved 25 April 2019.
  7. ^ Art History News, quoting his Evening Standard review of the 2012 Lely exhibition, "Small but perfectly formed"
  8. ^ Cust 1893, p. 21.
  9. ^ "Pit House" (PDF). Albury History Society – buildings – Pit House. Albury History Society. Retrieved 13 June 2022.

General references

External links

1893 text

Peter Lely, afterwards knighted. He lived in the Piazza, Covent Garden. This portrait was bought by Lord Braybrooke at Mr. Pepys Cockerell’s sale in 1848, and is now at Audley End.


This text comes from a footnote on a diary entry in the 1893 edition edited by Henry B. Wheatley.

10 Annotations

First Reading

vincent  •  Link

http://www.getty.edu/art/collecti…
ist painting
Edward Montagu, 1st Earl of Sandwich
by Sir Peter Lely
oil on canvas,circa 1655-1659
On display at the National Portrait Gallery
peter lely
Born 1618, Died 1680
Painter, Draftsman
British

His real name was van der Faes, but Peter Lely took his nickname after a family home with a lily on its gable. Born in Germany to Dutch parents, by 1637 he was Pieter Lely at the Guild of Saint Luke in Haarlem, where he trained. Ten years later he was in London, where he painted landscape, religious, and history pictures but quickly recognized the strength of the market in portraiture. Working for many of the late Anthony van Dyck's patrons, Lely took the opportunity to study his predecessor's paintings carefully.
http://www.tiscali.co.uk/referenc…
alt bio:

David Quidnunc  •  Link

A bit about his place in British art history:

"Portraiture, which was to become the single most brilliant achievement of English painting in the 18th century, was a field dominated in the 17th century by foreign artists who received many commissions from the royal court. The leading exponents of this period were van Dyck and Lely."

Quoted from this page, which pictures one of his portraits:
http://www.kfki.hu/~arthp/html/l/…

(This link thanks to Nix's annotation for 22 Nov 1660)

Pauline  •  Link

from L&M Companion
...by 1650 he was living in a house in the Piazza, Convent Garden, possibly the one in which he died. In the hearth-tax returns of 1666 a Mr Lilly is shown as occupying premises on the n. side of Long Acres, which contained a number of painters' studios (those e.g. of Hayls, Gibson and Streeter). The best-known of his works in the diary period are the series of court beauties (now at Hampton Court) and of the admirals who fought the Battle of Lowestoft (now in the National Maritime Museum). Pepys was himself painted by Lely, or in his studio, in 1673, probably on his appointment to the Admiralty. This picture now hangs in the Hall of Magdalene College. Pepys possessed at least two other protraits by him--those of Sandwich and Morland--and preserved in his library a number of engravings of Lely's portraits.

jeannine  •  Link

Summarized from Grammont

Lely was the principal painter of Charles II's reign and was born at Soest in Holland, and studied under Grebber at Haerlem. His real name was Van der Faes, his father being a captain in the infantry. He came to England in 1643 and was well received at the court. He became well known in Charles' court for the collection of "beauties" at Hampton Court.
In comparing Lely's painting with Vandyke's, Walpole contrasts the formal drapery of the latter with the fantastic night-gown raiments of the former. 'Whether the age was improved by beauty or in flattery, Lely's women are certainly mre handsomer than those of Vandyke. They please as much more as they evidently meaned to please." The commentary goes on to note the "sameness" of all of the women that Lely painted in their sleepy eyes and some facial expressions.

Second Reading

Bill  •  Link

Sir Peter Lely, who painted history and landscape when he first came into England, applied himself afterwards to portrait, in emulation of Vandyck. He copied the works of that admirable master with great success; but could not arrive at his excellence in copying nature. Vandyck painted what he saw before him; Lely painted his own ideas. In Vandyck's pictures we instantly see the person represented; in Lely's we see the painter. The languishing air, the sleepy eye, the cast of draperies, shew him to have been an excessive mannerist: but they shew him, at the fame time, to have been an excellent artist. The ladies were desirous of being drawn by his hand, as he knew how to bestow beauty where nature had been sparing. It has been justly said of him, that "he painted many fine pictures, but few good portraits." Ob. 30 November, 1680, Æt 63. He left an estate of 900 l. per annum, and his judicious collection of paintings, prints, and drawings sold for 26,000 l.
---A Biographical History of England. J. Granger, 1775.

Bill  •  Link

Peter Lely, who was knighted by Charles II. He lived for a time in Drury Lane, but in 1662 he moved to a house in the Piazza, Covent Garden. He died of apoplexy, 1680, and left an estate in Lincolnshire of £800 a year. His collection of pictures and drawings was very fine, and realized £26,000 when sold by auction.
---Wheatley, 1899.

Bill  •  Link

LELY, Sir PETER (1618-1680), portrait-painter; born at Soest by Amersfoort, near Utrecht; studied at Haarlem; came to England, 1641; introduced to Charles I, 1647; painted Charles I's portrait during his captivity at Hampton Court; painted Cromwell and enjoyed considerable private practice under him; in high favour with Charles II; painted portraits of the beauties of Charles II's court, and of the admirals and commanders in the naval victory at Solebay, 1665; knighted, 1679.
---Dictionary of National Biography: Index and Epitome. S. Lee, 1906.

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References

Chart showing the number of references in each month of the diary’s entries.

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