Portrait of James II as Duke of York (1633-1701), 17th Century; Follower of Peter Lely (1618-1680)

This grand scale portrait painted in the 17th century depicts King James II, when Duke of York. A state portrait format: A full length standing figure accompanied by such symbols of power and office; the baton of command refers to his office of Lord High Admiral. The armour is a nod to his ability on the battlefield as does the elaborate plumbed helmet on the table dressed with a red cloth fringed with gold. Behind him the classical fluted column is both an indicator of the portrait's noble setting and an emblem of fortitude. It is the epidemy of the early propaganda portrait.

Images such as this were an essential tool to emphasise and glorify a sitter’s importance and further their cause and by the early 17th century this was a favoured format for portraits of royalty and aristocracy. Royal portraits were painted both individually and in series to hang in royal palaces and stately homes of the nobility. The originals of these portraits served as a prototype for many copies, and many variations, made both in the 17th and 18th centuries, by the same hand and others. They were also intended for descendants wishing to show their royal lineage (a type of visual genealogy), or those wishing to show their political aspirations. In Lely’s studio sale on 18 April 1682 after his death, sixteen copies of his portraits of the Duke of York (four heads, six half-lengths and six whole-lengths), together with a double half-length of the Duke and late Duchess of York (Burlington Magazine, LXXXIII, 1943, pp 188, 191).

This particular composition is based on a type by Lely of c.1674 (an earlier variant can be found in the Royal Collection) and is his best-known portrait of the sitter. The prime version is now in a private collection but was originally in the Richmond Art Museum and other versions are at Harwell House, Warwickshire Hall, the Suffolk collection, Cirencester (Earl Bathurst, Catalogue of the Bathurst Collection, 1908, pp 10-11, illus.), Dyrham Park; Ecton Hall sale (Sotheby’s, 12 October 1955, lot 35), Sotheby’s sale (13 July 1988, lot 154), and Newnham Paddox and the Manor House, Ashby St Ledgers (sold Phillips, 19 July 1995, lot 229).

Lely also used this composition for other royal and ducal portraits - at least five other variants exist such as his portraits of Charles II, James II, with slight variations for William III, for the Duke of Monmouth, Duke of Grafton, Duke of Ormonde and his son the Earl of Ossory, and for Sir Thomas Middleton.

James II (1633-1701) was the second surviving son of Charles I and Henrietta Maria. In 1660 he secretly married Anne Hyde, daughter of the Earl of Clarendon and was created Lord High Admiral. Around 1670 he converted to Catholicism and in 1673 as a result of the Test Act he ceased to be High Admiral. In that year he also married his second wife Mary of Modena and in 1685 he succeeded his brother Charles II to the throne. His Catholic were very contentious and in the face of the Protestant forces of William of Orange (invited over to England by a discontented nobility), he fled London 23 December 1688 for France. He was defeated in Ireland on 1 July 1689 and this finally severed his connections with the English throne. He died at Saint-Germain-en-Laye in September 1701.

Pieter van der Faes, called Lely (1618-1680) trained in Haarlem before moving to London in 1641/3. In 1647 he became a 'freeman' of the Painter-Stainers' company on the same day as his friend the poet Richard Lovelace. The leading court portrait painter of his generation, Lely was appointed court painter to the King at the restoration. He had many assistances and pupils and ran a highly successfully practice. He was later knighted the year of his death (which was a rare for an artist). An important collector of paintings, drawings and prints his collections were dispersed after 1680.

Provenance: Guy H Davis, Clerk of the Council and Clerk of the Peace, Gloucestershire; The Down House,

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