For many years Philip Herbert, 4th Earl of Pembroke (1584–1649), was a favourite of King James I of England and he rapidly rose to prominence during his reig
Adriaen Hanneman was a Dutch Golden Age painter best known today for his portraits of the Stuart court in exile, but prior to this Hanneman worked in England for sixteen…
Robert Dudley (c. 1532/33–1588) was the favourite of Queen Elizabeth I of England, and many historians have speculated that he was her love
The art of portraiture flourished during the reign of Queen Elizabeth I of England, between 1558 and 1603.
Godfrey Kneller, born Gottfried Kniller in Lübeck, became the leading portrait painter in England in the late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries
For a nobleman in the sixteenth century, armour was the supreme symbol of honour, wealth and status.
Determined to project its status to the world, the Tudor court lured many leading artists from Italy, Flanders, Germany and France, and commissioned paintings and sculptures from others for manufacture…
When Hyacinthe Rigaud moved to Paris in 1681, he soon established himself as the finest portrait painter working at the court of Louis XIV.
Elizabeth Farren (1759–1829),the daughter of a surgeon and actor from Cork, first appeared as an actress at the Haymarket theatre in 177
The sitters in this group portrait are the three children of Sir Walter Synnot (1742–1821) of County Armagh: Maria at the left, Marcus who is shown kneeling, and Walter at…
Exhibited in 1768 at London’s Free Society of Artists, Romney’s portrait of the Leigh family is a highly accomplished example of the artist’s skills as a portra
Allan Ramsay’s full-length portrait of Richard Grenville (1711–79) is undoubtedly one of his finest works, and indeed one of the finest British portraits of the mid to late eighteenth centuryR
Lady Frances Finch was born at Grosvenor Square, London, on 9 February 1761, the daughter of Heanage Finch, 3rd Earl of Aylesford, and Charlotte, daughter of Charles Seymour, Duke of…
The sitter in this portrait, the Rt Hon. Charles Wolfran Cornewall, was born in 1735 at Berrington, Herefordshire.
Theophila (‘Offy’) Palmer (1757–1848) was the favourite niece of Sir Joshua Reynolds and model for his acclaimed ‘fancy’ picture Strawberry Girl, 1773 (Wallace Collection