Portrait of a Gentleman, Possibly George Peele (C.1557-c.1596) C.1580; 16th Century English School

In this Elizabethan panel portrait, a gentleman has been depicted wearing a fashionable red slashed doublet, white ruff, and a cape. According to the inscription the sitter was aged 23 years old when the portrait was painted in 1580. The portrait may represent George Peele (c.1557-c.1596) who was one of the most prominent figures among those of Shakespeare's "predecessors" and earlier contemporaries. He is widely known as one of the earliest professional writers in English. His University friends, even after the notoriety of Christopher Marlowe, described him as the “Atlas of poetry, inferior to none, and in some respects superior to all”.

Peele was born in London circa 1557 to a family thought to be of Devonshire origin. His father, James Peele, was a citizen and salter of London, and for many years held the office of clerk of Christ's Hospital. George studied at Cambridge University. In 1580, the year our portrait was painted, he married his first wife, heiress Ann Cooke – in all likelihood the portrait was commissioned to mark this occasion, which would have been a common practice at the time, in celebration of an important life event.

Peele was known as a “University Wit”. The University Wits were a group of late 16th-century English playwrights and pamphleteers who were educated at the Oxford and Cambridge universities and who became popular secular writers. Prominent members of this group were Christopher Marlowe, Robert Greene, Thomas Nashe, John Lyly, Thomas Lodge, and George Peele. This diverse and talented loose association of London writers and dramatists set the stage for the theatrical Renaissance of Elizabethan England. They prepared the way for the writings of William Shakespeare, who was born just two months after Christopher Marlowe. Peele died "of the pox," and was buried on 9 November 1596 in St James's Church, Clerkenwell, London.

Oil on oak panel.

Measurements: Height 64cm, Width 60cm framed (Height 25”, Width 23.5” framed)

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