Wednesday, November 3, 2021

van Somer and de Critz (Flemish Portraitists in Britain)

Paul van Somer
Sir Rowland Cotton
1618
oil on panel
private collection

Paul van Somer
Lady Elizabeth Grey, Countess of Kent
ca. 1619
oil on panel
Tate Britain

workshop of Paul van Somer
Anne of Denmark
ca. 1617
oil on canvas
National Portrait Gallery, London

Paul van Somer
Anne of Denmark at Oatlands
1617
oil on canvas
Royal Collection, Great Britain

Paul van Somer
James I
ca. 1618
oil on canvas
Royal Collection, Great Britain

Paul van Somer
Portrait of a Lady
ca. 1620
oil on panel
Denver Art Museum

Paul van Somer
Francis Bacon
1617
oil on panel
Łazienka Palace, Warsaw

Paul van Somer
George Villiers, 1st Duke of Buckingham
before 1621
oil on panel
Museum of Fine Arts, Houston

attributed to Paul van Somer
The 1st Earl of Monmouth and his Family
ca. 1617
oil on canvas
National Portrait Gallery, London

John de Critz the Elder
Anne of Denmark
ca. 1605
oil on panel
private collection

John de Critz the Elder
Anne of Denmark
ca. 1605
oil on panel
National Maritime Museum, London

John de Critz the Elder
James I
1604
oil on canvas
Scottish National Gallery, Edinburgh

attributed to John de Critz the Elder
James I
ca. 1605
oil on panel
Museo del Prado, Madrid

John de Critz the Elder
William Parker, 4th Baron Monteagle
and 11th Baron Morley

ca. 1615
oil on panel
Denver Art Museum

John de Critz the Elder
Posthumous Portrait of Sir Philip Sidney
ca. 1620
oil on panel
Bolton Museum and Art Gallery, Manchester

In Britain during the reign of James I, as earlier under Elizabeth, royal and aristocratic figures of importance required portraits, and rarely entrusted themselves to the crude abilities of native painters.  Throughout the seventeenth century the importation of painters to Britain from the Low Countries, from Germany, and more rarely from Italy, was taken for granted as the only way to obtain an acceptable level of quality.  (Italians were difficult to lure into a cold climate populated by heretics.)