Portrait of Nell Gwyn C.1670; Circle or Studio of Lely (Uk, C. 1670)

Oil on canvas in oval giltwood frame.

A beautiful painting of the famous actress and courtesan.

Inscribed upper left 'Mistress Eleanora Gwin'

The face is particularly sensitively painted in contrast to the rest of the body, and especially the drapery in which the paint is used with an artistic freedom and delight in the use of the medium. This works very well in drawing the attention of the viewer to the features of the sitter.

The historical importance and attractiveness of the sitter make this a most engaging portrait.

Portraits of prominent subjects of their day, especially Royal and Court sitters, were in much demand after the Restoration. Lely’s many talented studio assistants and members of his Circle were regularly occupied in making highly accomplished copies.

NELL GWYN (Gwin, Gwynn or Gwynne) was born Eleanor Gwyn (2 Feb. 1650 - 14 Nov. 1687).

Charles II's famous mistress ('pretty witty Nell' in Pepys's words) began life as an orange seller in the Theatre Royal, where she was befriended by Charles Hart and John Lacy, the players. In 1665 she appeared for the first time on the stage as Cydraria in Dryden's 'Indian Emperor'.

Pepys greatly admired her, and she continued in numerous roles by Dryden and others until she quitted the stage in 1682. Dryden wrote parts especially for her, taking advantage in particular of her gift for delivering prologues and epilogues. Nell became extremely famous and was much in favour with the public.

After she had recited an epilogue in a hat 'of the circumference of a large coach-wheel', Charles II approached her and took her back in his coach to supper. Much of her popularity as the King's mistress lay in the unpopularity of the Catholic Duchess of Portsmouth, her main rival. It is said that when mobbed in Oxford by a crowd who mistook her for her rival, Nell leant out of her coach and said: 'Pray good people be civil; I am the Protestant whore'.

Madame de Sevigne noted the rivalry and said of Nell Gwyn: 'She is young, indiscreet, confident, wild and of an agreeable humour: she sings, she dances, she acts her part with a good grace.'

She had two sons by the King and the eldest, Charles, was created Duke of St Albans. The King assigned Burford House in Windsor to her. She died aged 37 and is buried in the Church of St. Martin's in the Fields, at the corner of Trafalgar Square.

SIR PETER LELY (1618 - 1680) was the dominant Court and Society portraitist of the reign of Charles ll. He was made Principal Painter to the King in 1661, and knighted in 1680.

SIZE: 35 x 25 inches inc. frame.

PROVENANCE:

James Duff, 2nd Earl of Fife (1729-1809);

Rt. Hon. Lord Saltoun of Abernathy;

Christie's London, 13 October 1950 (lot 23);

The late Dr. William Lindsay Gordon.