Studio of Sir Peter Lely (1618-1680), Portrait of Lady Anne (1665–1714), later Queen, c.1678

Studio of Sir Peter Lely (1618-1680)
Portrait of Lady Anne (1665–1714), later Queen
Oil on canvas
20⅞ x 16¾ in.
c.1678

We are pleased to offer a rare bust length portrait of Lady Anne Stuart (1665-1714), later Queen (1702-1714), from the studio of Sir Peter Lely (1618-1680) [1]. Lely was the foremost portrait painter to the English Court, and the leading painter of the restoration period. Praised especially for his portraits of female sitters, this work recalls Lely’s famous Windsor Beauties through the use of weighty backing drapes and dresses of sumptuous silk, glowing through the depiction of light and shadow. The full-length version of Lely’s painting ‘Queen Anne when a child’, c.1678 was known through mezzotint engravings produced in the seventeenth century, but was only rediscovered in a private collection in 2003 [2] (see figs. 1. & 2.). The present work is the only other known version of the full portrait and shows a cropped composition with slight alterations. David A. H. B. Taylor, the co-author of the forthcoming catalogue raisonné on Lely who rediscovered the larger version, has argued that the present ‘smaller picture may have been produced before the larger picture, or simultaneously, and they wouldn’t necessarily be an identical match in terms of modelling and details of clothes.’ And, firmly placing the work within the artist’s studio, Taylor observed ‘good painting in areas such as the modelling of the curls of Anne’s hair’ [3] If this portrait was painted first, it is possible that Peter Lely would have had a direct hand in both its composition and execution, producing a bust more closely relating to the life usable as a preparatory work for the larger version. This would be consonant with Lely’s studio practice of painting the head himself and leaving the drapery and further attributes to his assistants. The quality of the brushstrokes around the face are indicative of this, as well as the work being left unfinished, in turn revealing the delicate modelling. This has arguably created a more lively and direct countenance than in the larger worked up version.

This compelling work shows the youthful Lady Anne in profile and is of particularly high quality. Given the sitter’s age and the suggestively sensuous manner in which it has been painted, it is likely that the work was produced to promote Anne for marriage: her porcelain-pale skin and high forehead mark Anne as a woman of aristocratic dignity, whilst rosy, rounded cheeks are filled with life and speak to her vitality [4]. Chestnut ringlets are beautifully modelled with naturalistic skill in the fashionable ‘hurly-burly’ style, which was fashionable in contemporary royal commissions [5]. Tones of red are reflected in the perimeters of Anne’s hair, repeated in the claret curtain and the rubies which wind around the sitter’s shoulder, creating a pyramidal form which frames and focuses on Anne’s face and delicate features. Further, Anne’s purity and innocence, and therefore her virginity, are attested to by the pearls which adorn the finely modelled neckline of her lilac gown. Dashes of lighter paint are utilised to make these adorning pearls, rubies and gemstones glitter and glint alongside Anne’s intelligent gaze which is enlivened with a mimetic yet subtle speck of white, which reflects the light behind the painter. The classicising drape of red curtain and the silhouetted leaves find completion in the full-length portrait, as an unfinished wreath and large ewer are introduced. This imagery speaks to iconographical promotion of Lady Anne as an educated, eligible and demonstrably impressive young woman, utilising a visual language which was being modelled as a contemporary alternative to the traditional Catholic imagery. This portrait therefore ‘serves to promote Anne as a future wife and mother of Protestant heirs for the Stuarts’ [6].

Anne would be married on the 28th of July 1683 to Prince George of Denmark. Anne was the second daughter of the Catholic King James II & VII who was denounced by many of his Protestant subjects as a tyrant. Following her brother-in-law’s invasion and James’s flight to France, William and Mary were jointly crowned. Upon their deaths Anne succeeded the throne in 1702 not by traditional hereditary right – her brother-in-law was pretending to the title of ‘James III’ in France – but by parliamentary statute law ratified in the ‘revolution settlement.’ The revolution severely limited the power of the monarchy and Anne reigned as a parliamentary, or ‘constitutional,’ monarch. She most notably oversaw the legislative union of England and Scotland as Great Britain and the Peace of Utrecht, both of which cemented the country’s future pre-eminence.

Whiteman’s Fine Art gives thanks to David A. H. B. Taylor for his insightful comments regarding this work.

Notes

1 David A. H. B. Taylor email correspondence based on high resolution images of the artwork, Tuesday 12th November 2024.
2 David A. H. B. Taylor, “A Rediscovered Portrait of Queen Anne, When a Child, by Sir Peter Lely,” The Burlington Magazine 145, no. 1204 (July 2003): 501–4; Engraving by Richard Tompson, 33 x 25 cm.
3 David A. H. B. Taylor email correspondence, Tuesday 12th November 2024.
4 4 David A. H. B. Taylor, “A Rediscovered Portrait of Queen Anne, When a Child, by Sir Peter Lely,” The Burlington Magazine 145, no. 1204 (July 2003): 501–4: p. 501.
5 As in the portrait of Anne’s older sister: Sir Peter Lely’s Mary II (1662-94), when Princess of Orange, c.1677. Oil on canvas, 126.0 x 102.3 cm. Royal Collection: Chatsworth Room, Hampton Court Palace, RCIN 40258.
6 David A. H. B. Taylor email correspondence, Tuesday 12th November 2024.

Figures

Fig. 1. Queen Anne, when a child, after Peter Lely. c.1678-79. Mezzotint, 33 by 24.9 cm. (National
Portrait Gallery, London)

Fig.2. Queen Anne, when a child, by Peter Lely. c. 1678. 123.2 by 97.8 cm. (Private collection)

Provenance

Capt. H. A. N. Forte of Polock, West Somerset;
Christie’s, 21st February, 1913, Lot 52;
Christie’s, 24th March, 1922, Lot 93;
Private Collection, United Kingdom.