Works by Peter Lely
51 works · 146 ms
Sir Peter Lely, who studied in Haarlem and spent nearly all his career in England, became the court's dominant portrait painter, with a stronger leaning toward painting women than men.
His early English pictures, after he reached London around 1643, were mostly myths, religious scenes or portraits in pastoral landscapes, influenced by Anthony van Dyck and the Dutch baroque. Diana and her Nymphs at a Fountain, of about 1648, belongs to a series of such scenes he hoped would launch him; the museum believes the nymph holding the bowl where Diana dips her fingers is among British art's earliest images of an African woman.
After he painted the head, pupils often finished the portrait in one of a set of numbered poses, and such studio pieces vary in quality. Overpainting had once lowered the brows of Mrs. Leneve and shrunk her eyes and lips to suit modern taste; she now looks as Lely meant, heavy-lidded, in pearls and blue silk. Below are mainly portraits and a few drawings, one a self-portrait of about 1641.
Sources: Wikipedia, National Gallery of Art, Yale Center for British Art, Cleveland Museum of Art.
