Portrait of John Baines C.1680; Circle of Simon Dubois (1632-1706)

The gentleman in this portrait has been depicted wearing a striking crimson tunic and a well-made wig, something that was essential to a gentleman of fashion. The tunic is made of the finest iridescent shot silk and it would have been quite a spectacle as it shimmered as changed colour at different angels.

Wigs were very unnatural hairpieces that no one could pretend to mistake them for natural hair. But their popularity was immense and by this time so fashionable. The demand fuelled prices so much that natural hair became a valued commodity, with the usual price being 3 pounds an ounce. Dealers sprang up in all quarters. In France every peasant girl was trying to sell her hair and in England the hair of an old woman, after death, sold for 50 pounds. Wigs could form part of a woman’s dowry. Wig theft was so common that it was deemed necessary to create a name for a wig thief (chiving lay) and it was a precarious adventure taking a Hackney Carriage across London for fear that the back of the carriage would be slit and your wig stolen from your head.

The sitter is by tradition John Baines (born c.1648) who in 1692 married his cousin Dorothy at Cawood (widow of John Conyers and daughter of Christopher Hewley of York and Annie his wife). The family seat was Bell Hall, built by Sir John Hewley (1619 - c.1695) who was a lawyer of Gray's Inn and Whig MP. Sir John was a puritan, but at the Restoration, like his fellow townsman, Lord Fairfax, and General Monk, a Royalist and his house asserts that fact. Nonconformist in religion, he may have done this to get around the law that prevented nonconformist ministers from residing within five miles of York. Wood panelling in the family estate Bell Hall is reputed to hide cavities in the walls where they hid Presbyterian ministers.

At the time of writing we have portraits of four members of this family.

Simon Dubois (1632, Antwerp – buried 1706, London) was a portrait painter of Flemish or Dutch origin. Having worked both in his hometown and Italy during his career he came to England in 1680 and was fortunate in securing the patronage and friendship of Lord-chancellor Somers and thus developed a good career. Du Bois lived in Covent Garden with his brother Edward (1619-1696), also a painter, and together they amassed considerable sums of money and gained much experience.

Provenance: By direct descent within the Hewley Baines of Bell Hall, Naburn, Near York to John Hewley Baines of Latimer House, Heckington, Lincolnshire for over 200 years until recently acquired by Titan Fine Art

Literature: Paper of the Baines family of Bell Hall, Naburn, Hull History Centre

Country Life, 17th June, 1922, p.820-823

Measurements: Height 92cm, Width 79cm framed (Height 36”, Width 31” framed)

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