ARTIST BIRTHDAY - SIR PETER LELY (14 SEPTEMBER)
Lely spent most of his life in England but was born in the Netherlands in 1618. There are only a few known works done by Lely before he came to England. They are mostly landscapes or genre paintings. Lely’s family name was van der Faes. The name Lely is said to have come from a lily was carved on his family’s home in The Hague.
Lely’s timing in his move to England was impeccable. His chief competitors as portrait painters—van Dyck and Dobson—were dead or dying. Another competitor, Cornelius Johnson, had moved back to the Netherlands.
Lely was successful as a portrait painter. Among his first patrons were the earls of Pembroke, Salisbury and Leicester. By 1650, he had bought a house near Covent Garden, London, where he stayed for the rest of his life.
Lely was appointed Principal Painter to King Charles II in 1661. This meant he was entitled to an annual pension. Unfortunately, payment was often significantly late. Nevertheless, Lely indulged in extravagences. Samuel Pepys in his Diary called Lely “a mighty proud man,” and detailed Lely’s luxurious life style. Lely died in debt.
Lely was naturalized in 1662. His later patrons included ancient royalist families such as the Somersets. Lely was knighted in early 1680.
Lely had formal, academy training in draftsmanship during his youth in the Netherlands. Such training in drawing was unusual in England at time. Scholars believe that part of the motivation for Lely’s collection of drawings was to learn from them and to teach from them. Lely never traveled to Italy to see the work of the masters. Instead he was exposed to them through his collection. Lely probably used his collection of drawings as examples for his studio assistants to follow.
Lely’s services were in demand so he hired several studio assistants. Some of Lely’s assistants became important artists, for instance, Nicholas de Largilliere. Lely usually painted the head of a sitter himself from life. Assistants painted the clothing and background. Sometimes patrons questioned Lely about how much of their portrait was actually done by Lely himself.
There are a total of thirty-one drawings in the series on the procession of the Order of the Garter. Scholars believe these were not commissioned and were occasioned by Lely witnessing the procession himself.
Lely was one of the major art collectors of his time. His collection was particularly strong in Italian, Flemish and Dutch works. Lely probably was an art dealer as well as a collector. Art historians believe Lely worked with a Dutch partner to sell the paintings he collected.
Lely died at his easel in 1680. It took his executors eighteen months to assemble and organize Lely’s collection to pay his debts. There were two estate sales. In addition to his own paintings, and those by other artists, Lely had 7,000 prints and 3,000 drawings in his collection.
