Sir Peter Lely (Dutch, 1618-1680) Portrait of... Lot n° 69027

Sir Peter Lely (Dutch, 1618-1680) Portrait of a Gentleman, thought to be the actor Henry Harris, in a feigned oval, circa 1660s Oil on canvas 30 x 25 inches (76.2 x 63.5 cm) Monogrammed lower left inside the oval: PL Property from the Collection of Bill and Margot Winspear, Dallas, Texas PROVENANCE: Blundell, Hampshire (per the record below); Christie's, London, June 16, 2005, lot 212 (attributed to John Greenhill on the basis of a partial apocryphal signature); Philip Mould & Company, London; Acquired by the present owner from the above. During the second half of the seventeenth century, Sir Peter Lely assumed the mantle of Sir Anthony van Dyck as the most dominant portraitist in England, owing both to the enviable brio of his skillful likenesses and to his considerable personal charm. Everyone of consequence in his age sat to him. The present Portrait of a Gentleman, thought to be the actor Henry Harris, in a feigned oval (circa 1660) is, as English portrait specialist Philip Mould has commented, "a superb example of Lely's technique at what is arguably the highpoint of his artistic development. Here, the complete (and exceedingly difficult) mastery of tone so perfected by Rembrandt, and redolent of Lely's early education in Holland, is combined with his admiration for Van Dyck, whose elegant style increasingly became the starting point for all Lely's later work." In this portrait, Lely has made the most of the sitter's piercing intensity through his extremely subtle tonal gradations of the man's hooded eyes and sculpted nose—the two features imparting the most character to the face. They are also the most distinguishing characteristics of actor Henry Harris (circa 1634-1704), for whom only one surviving portrait is known [Magdalen College, Oxford, circa 1663]. Painted by John Greenhill, Lely's most talented pupil, that portrait shows Harris in the role of Cardinal Wolsey from Shakespeare's Henry VIII, presented in three-quarter view, and displaying an almost complete physiognomic resemblance to the man in Lely's painting. As Mould carefully observed, Lely's palette for the present portrait was limited, containing only four colors (brown, white, black, and red). He added: "Perhaps the most ingenious touch is the emergent backlight which offsets the thickly applied pigments in the face, and which instantly adds depth to the whole composition, while the delicate highlights on the sitter's left shoulder are enough to complete the sense of dimension, as his clothing appears to spill out over the painted oval frame. This sense of drama, captured throughout with the mastery of drawing that made Lely the most accomplished draughtsman after Van Dyck, ensures that we are fastened with a piercing gaze in a portrait of presence and power that few other artists – even across Europe – could have achieved at that time." Henry Harris was one of the leading actors of the late seventeenth century, and is known to us today chiefly through his friendship with diarist Samuel Pepys. Pepys recorded that he was able to command £20 for each new play (the equivalent of approximately £5,000 today), more than any other actor, and in 1663 he was made Yeoman of the Revels for life, with lodgings at court. Mould noted: "As part of the new generation of actors eager to please a post-Puritan audience, Harris played an important role in leading Londoners out of the rigid austerity of Cromwell's republic into the florid grandeur of the Stuart monarchy. He performed regularly for the King and the Duke of York. His friendship with Pepys began in 1667, the diarist thinking him ‘a very excellent person, such as in my whole [life] I do not know another better qualified for converse... I was mightily pleased with his company.' He was a ‘very curious and understanding person in all pictures and other things – and a man of fine conversation', and Pepys seems to have relied on the actor, who was something of a rogue, to experience the wilder antics of London life. After one evening of drink and merriment, he noted, ‘Lord, their mad bawdy talk did make my heart ake.''' HID12701242017