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The present portrait of an elegantly attired young woman is a fine example of the type of portraiture that spanned the Elizabethan and Jacobean periods. Rich with colour and detail, this style of painting dominated Elizabeth’s reign and remained in vogue until the 1620s, when tastes began to shift towards a more dynamic mode of depiction.
Painted in the mid-1610s, this portrait shows a young woman bedecked in the trappings of wealth and status. Her hair is worn in a fashionable upswept manner and is embellished with a jewelled ‘tire’ of a floral design, which would have caught the light and shimmered as she moved. A broad lace ruff frames her delicate complexion, complemented by a large pearl – symbolic of purity – worn on her ear. The bodice of the dress is decorated with floral motifs and embroidered with glistening silver thread. Between her two fingers, the sitter gently holds a necklace, likely made of rock crystal –...
The present portrait of an elegantly attired young woman is a fine example of the type of portraiture that spanned the Elizabethan and Jacobean periods. Rich with colour and detail, this style of painting dominated Elizabeth’s reign and remained in vogue until the 1620s, when tastes began to shift towards a more dynamic mode of depiction.
Painted in the mid-1610s, this portrait shows a young woman bedecked in the trappings of wealth and status. Her hair is worn in a fashionable upswept manner and is embellished with a jewelled ‘tire’ of a floral design, which would have caught the light and shimmered as she moved. A broad lace ruff frames her delicate complexion, complemented by a large pearl – symbolic of purity – worn on her ear. The bodice of the dress is decorated with floral motifs and embroidered with glistening silver thread. Between her two fingers, the sitter gently holds a necklace, likely made of rock crystal – a costly accessory that was evidently of personal significance.
Stylistically, this portrait bears apparent similarities with a group of portraits by or attributed to Robert Peake, painted in and around 1615. These include the portraits of Lady Anne Pope, 1615,[1] Lady Elizabeth Pope, c. 1615,[2] and Portrait of a Lady, c. 1615.[3] All these works feature young female sitters, often with their hands raised to their chests, their heads slightly tilted downward, and a hint of a smile.
Robert Peake was born into a prosperous Lincolnshire family and is first recorded by name on 30 April 1565 when he enrolled as an apprentice to the London goldsmith Laurence Woodham.[4] In 1576, he became a freeman of the London Goldsmith’s Company and, over the next three years, was employed as a painter for the Office of Revels – a department of the Royal Household responsible for staging events such as banquets, masks, plays, and dances. He is now best known for his striking depictions of the royal family, particularly those of Henry, Prince of Wales, for whom he seems to have been the official portraitist. Having at one time been in danger of obscurity, Peake, as one of the few court painters of note not to be foreign, is now recognised as a major figure in the evolution of a British School of painting. Like his contemporaries in the de Critz and Gheeraerts families, Peake specialised in the meticulous depiction of costume and jewellery demanded by late Elizabethan patrons.
[1] Tate, T00068.
[2] Tate, T00067.
[3] Phillips, London, 12 December 1995, lot 32.
[4] The most up to date biography on Peake is Karen Hearn’s entry in the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (2008).
