(11 x 7 1/2 inches including margins. Measurements are app...)
11 x 7 1/2 inches including margins. Measurements are approximate. Verso is blank. Published in a 1905 periodical. Not a modern reproduction.
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Lely was born Pieter van der Faes to Dutch parents on October 14, 1618, in Soest in Westphalia, Germany, where his father was an officer serving in the armed forces of the Elector of Brandenburg. His family was Flemish. He 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 received his early training in Haarlem, but whatever style he may have developed was submerged in that of Sir Anthony Van Dyck.
He became a master of the Guild of Saint Luke in Haarlem in 1637.
The nation was involved in the civil wars, which ended in 1649 with the execution of Charles I and the accession to power of Oliver Cromwell, the army, and the Parliamentarians.
But Lely secured the patronage of influential people, and between 1647 and 1660 he impartially painted royalist and Parliamentarian alike.
Wrapped in voluminous but disordered shimmering draperies, the subjects of these opulent portraits gaze languidly at the spectator from heavy-lidded eyes and convey a curious combination of sensuality and dignity.
Lely's imitative ability was such that to a degree he successively adapted himself to the cavalier style of Charles I's court, the more severe style of the Commonwealth, and subsequently the sensuous manner demanded by Charles II, to whom Lely was court painter. Among his best-known portraits are those of Charles I and Oliver Cromwell, and a group of paintings at Hampton court representing Nell Gwynn, Mrs. Middleton, and other famous beauties of the court of Charles II.
Most of the portraits are three-quarter length, and generally the sitter is posed somewhat to one side of the composition.
Lely's work lacks the delicacy and refinement of Van Dyck's finest English portraits and is more robust and heavier in tone and volume. Lely was famous for his facility in handling fabrics, and the play of light on flowing satin clothing is one of the primary visual elements of his paintings.
Lely's mature style in the female court portrait is best seen in the series of 10 portraits painted as a set (1662 - 1665) and known as the "Windsor Beauties. "
(11 x 7 1/2 inches including margins. Measurements are app...)
Lely's name is associated with the "grand manner" portraits he painted of society beauties and court ladies.
