Friday, August 20, 2021

Steven van der Meulen (Flemish Expatriate)

Steven van der Meulen
Thomas Butler, 10th Earl of Ormonde
ca. 1560
oil on panel
National Gallery of Ireland, Dublin

Steven van der Meulen
Robert Dudley, 1st Earl of Leicester
before 1564
oil on panel
Yale Center for British Art

attributed to Steven van der Meulen
Robert Dudley, 1st Earl of Leicester
ca. 1560
oil on panel
Wallace Collection, London

Steven van der Meulen
Catherine Carey, Lady Knollys
(putative likeness)
1562
oil on panel
Yale Center for British Art

Steven van der Meulen
Catherine Carey, Lady Knollys (detail)
1562
oil on panel
Yale Center for British Art

attributed to Steven van der Meulen
John Lumley, 1st Baron Lumley
ca. 1560
oil on panel
private collection

attributed to Steven van der Meulen
William Herbert, 1st Earl of Pembroke
ca. 1560
oil on panel
National Museum of Wales, Cardiff

Steven van der Meulen
Lady Frances Sidney, Countess of Sussex
before 1564
oil on panel
Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge

Steven van der Meulen
Henry Fitzalan, 12th Earl of Arundel
ca. 1564
oil on panel
National Portrait Gallery, London

Steven van der Meulen
Gentleman of the Tichborne Family
before 1564
oil on panel
Museums Sheffield, Yorkshire

Steven van der Meulen
Eleanor Benlowes
1564
oil on panel
St John's College, Cambridge

attributed to Steven van der Meulen
Sir John Gresham the Elder
(putative likeness)
ca. 1550
oil on panel
National Trust, Dunham Massey, Manchester

Steven van der Meulen
Erik XIV, King of Sweden
1561
oil on panel
Nationalmuseum, Stockholm

"Early in 1561 an English merchant, John Dymoch, brought with him to Sweden a "holändsk Konterfegare," Master Staffan.  Dymoch's visit was in connexion with negotiations for the marriage of Erik XIV and [Queen] Elizabeth; and in March 1561 an audience was given for the painter to proceed with a portrait of the King.  The King was much pleased with the result, and rewarded the painter with the gift of 100 daler.  The portrait was taken to England by Nils Sture (as envoy extraordinary to the English Court) and Dymoch, and was presented to Queen Elizabeth at an audience in June 1561.  The Queen is said to have been much impressed, and to have remarked that if the King was as handsome as the portrait, nobody could resist him."

– W.G. Constable, from a short article on The Famous Paynter Steven published in the Burlington Magazine (September, 1935) 

(More recent scholarship has called into some doubt Steven van der Meulen's authorship of the group of portraits, mainly English, traditionally assigned to him, and has attempted to propose alternative painters as the actual "Master Staffan")   

Steven van der Meulen
Queen Elizabeth I
ca. 1563
oil on panel
Tate Britain

Steven van der Meulen
Queen Elizabeth I (detail)
ca. 1563
oil on panel
Tate Britain