This episode offers an insight into the work of John Greenhill and a revelation regarding the identity of the sitters in this baroque portrait of a mother and child. Of all the artists to emerge from the studio of Sir Peter Lely (1618-80) - the dominant artist in England in the late seventeenth century - John Greenhill was, as George Vertue noted, 'the most excellent.' He is known to have joined Lely's studio by 1662, but seems to have left fairly soon afterwards to establish his own practice. Greenhill was at the centre of the artistic scene in London after the Restoration, and he painted most of the leading actors of his generation.
This episode offers an insight into the work of John Greenhill and a revelation regarding the identity of the sitters in this baroque portrait of a mother and child.
Of all the artists to emerge from the studio of Sir Peter Lely (1618-80) - the dominant artist in England in the late seventeenth century - John Greenhill was, as George Vertue noted, "the most excellent." He is known to have joined Lely's studio by 1662, but seems to have left fairly soon afterwards to establish his own practice. Greenhill was at the centre of the artistic scene in London after the Restoration, and he painted most of the leading actors of his generation.
