Lady Cullen as Venus
This seductive nude by Charles II's favourite portrait painter, Sir Peter Lely (1618-1680), is most unusual for the time (especially in England) as it is a nude portrait, not an idealised mythological subject. The Lady boldly revealing all is Elizabeth Trentham, Viscountess Cullen (1640-1713), who was Lady of the Bedchamber to Charles' wife, Queen Catherine.
Nymphs by a fountain (C. 1652)
Lely was born Pieter van der Faes to Dutch parents in Westphalia but after studying in Haarlem came to London in 1641, where he painted mythological scenes and portraits. He rapidly built a reputation as a top portraitist and painted Charles I. Despite the English Civil War and the subsequent execution of Charles I his talent was such that he continued to paint during the rule of Oliver Cromwell. He painted Cromwell and his son and when Charles II was restored to the thrown in 1660 the King appointed him as principal painter.
Lely became fabulously successful and became not so much a painter as a brand, establishing a large workshop where a team of assistants would work on completing the boring bits of his paintings and churning out copies of his most successful works. It was not unusual for Lely just to paint the face of the subject of a portrait and his studio to finish the rest. The only other nude portrait Lely did (and probably the only other one anyone did in the seventeenth century in England) was Charles II notorious mistress, the actress Nell Gwyn, who he depicted with her (and the King's) son, Charles. By this time Charles had had seven children by five mistresses. Gwyn, in turn, was had been the mistress to two other men called Charles, inmediuately before the King, so jokingly referred to him as Charles III.
Lely depicts Gwyn with at least a few swathes of fabric over her body but Lady Cullen is shown as defiantly, completely naked. Lady Cullen was a woman of notoriety for her physical appearance, lack of morality and gambling. An heiress in her own right she had an income of £6000 a year (nearly £600,000 at today's value) and managed to spend it all, so that her husband had to bail her out. Lely also painted Lady Cullen clothed, but she has the same naughty glint in her eye as in the nude painting. The nude picture may have been commissioned by her husband or even by Lady Cullen herself, some believe. It is a bold, unique, portrayal of an English aristocrat (Gwyn, after all was a commoner) from the seventeenth century and the fact that she posed for it tells you everything you need to know about her.
If you really like it, it is goes on sale in London in about a week's time, having never been on public view since it was painted.
Nell Gwyn and her son Charles
Lely became fabulously successful and became not so much a painter as a brand, establishing a large workshop where a team of assistants would work on completing the boring bits of his paintings and churning out copies of his most successful works. It was not unusual for Lely just to paint the face of the subject of a portrait and his studio to finish the rest. The only other nude portrait Lely did (and probably the only other one anyone did in the seventeenth century in England) was Charles II notorious mistress, the actress Nell Gwyn, who he depicted with her (and the King's) son, Charles. By this time Charles had had seven children by five mistresses. Gwyn, in turn, was had been the mistress to two other men called Charles, inmediuately before the King, so jokingly referred to him as Charles III.
Lady Cullen
Lely depicts Gwyn with at least a few swathes of fabric over her body but Lady Cullen is shown as defiantly, completely naked. Lady Cullen was a woman of notoriety for her physical appearance, lack of morality and gambling. An heiress in her own right she had an income of £6000 a year (nearly £600,000 at today's value) and managed to spend it all, so that her husband had to bail her out. Lely also painted Lady Cullen clothed, but she has the same naughty glint in her eye as in the nude painting. The nude picture may have been commissioned by her husband or even by Lady Cullen herself, some believe. It is a bold, unique, portrayal of an English aristocrat (Gwyn, after all was a commoner) from the seventeenth century and the fact that she posed for it tells you everything you need to know about her.
If you really like it, it is goes on sale in London in about a week's time, having never been on public view since it was painted.
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