Pair of Portraits of Two Girls of the Howard Family C.1650: Attributed to Remigius Van Leemput.

Both small oil on canvas in carved and giltwood frames, bearing the name plate 'Sir Peter Lely'

The two sitters are most likely members of the Howard of Effingham family.

The Howard family is an English aristocratic family founded by John Howard who was created Duke of Norfolk (3rd creation) by Plantagenet monarch Richard III of England in 1483. However, John was also the eldest (although maternal) grandson of the 1st Duke of 1st creation. The Howards have been part of the peerage since the 15th century and remain the Premier Dukes of the Realm in the Peerage of England, acting as Earl Marshal of England.

William Howard, 1st Baron Howard of Effingham (c. 1510 – 12 January 1573), was the founder of the Effingham branch of the family, he was the eldest son of Thomas Howard, 2nd Duke of Norfolk by his second wife, Agnes Tilney. Howard served four monarchs, Henry VIII, Edward VI, Queen Mary and Queen Elizabeth, in various official capacities, most notably on diplomatic missions and as Lord Admiral and Lord Chamberlain of the Household.

REMIGIUS VAN LEEMPUT (1609?-1675) was a highly accomplished painter working in seventeenth century England, and a celebrated small scale copyist of the works of Sir Anthony Van Dyck (1599-1641) and Sir Peter Lely (1618-80).

Leemput was baptised in Antwerp in 1607 and by 1635 was living in Covent Garden, London, which is when, perhaps, he began working in the studio of Van Dyck, who arrived in England three years earlier. Very little is known about the pupils who trained and worked with Van Dyck, although it is generally acknowledged that Leemput was employed to assist with the preliminary development of his works and also as a copyist. He copied many portraits by Van Dyck, and told Sir Peter Lely that he could copy his portraits better than Lely could himself. Van Leemput died in 1675, and on 9 Nov. was buried in St. Paul's, Covent Garden.

SIZE: 16 x 13 inches inc. frame.

PROVENANCE: Private Collection, a Northamptonshire Country House.

Verso: an old, handwritten label , badly torn " No.1 .....Howard..Daught(er?) ..Lord Effingham Howard. Sir P.Lely'. Both paintings bear the chalk inscription 'Hemsley'.