Marcus Gheeraerts the Younger

Portrait of a Woman. 1590s. Oil on canvas, 217 x 135,3 cm Royal Collection, Hampton Court.

Marcus Gheeraerts (also written as Gerards or Geerards) was an artist of the Tudor court, born in Bruges in 1561 or 1562, and was brought to England in 1568 by his father Marcus Gheeraerts the Elder, a painter of whose work hardly anything is known, although his work as a printmaker reached around Europe. Trained by his father and perhaps also a pupil of Lucas de Heere, Marcus produced his first surviving inscribed portrait in 1593; by this date, however, he was already under the powerful patronage of the royal pageant master, Sir Henry Lee. In 1590 Gheeraerts married Magdalena, the sister of the painter John de Critz. The couple had six children, only two of whom seem to have survived.

Gheeraerts was the most distinguished and most fashionable portraitist of the 1590s, and continued to be after Elizabeth's death, becoming the favorite painter of James I's queen, Anne of Denmark. He received a grant of naturalization in 1618, and was still royal "picture drawer" in that year, when he received his last recorded payments for royal portraits. During the second half of the 1610s, however, Gheeraert's position declined as the result of competition from a new generation of immigrants. For the last twenty years of his life he was supported chiefly by the lesser gentry and by academic sitters. Gheeraerts was a member of the Court of the Painter-Stainers' Company in the 1620s and had an apprentice, Ferdinando Clifton, who was a freeman of the Company in 1627. Gheeraerts died on 19 January 1636.

[edit] Portrait of Queen Elizabeth I

Portrait of Queen Elisabeth I. 1592, Oil on canvas, 241 x 152 cm National Gallery London This is the largest surviving full-length portrait of Queen Elizabeth I, despite having 7.5 cm cut from each side. It is also one of the earliest works by Gheeraerts. His name may seem familiar; his father, Marcus Gheeraerts the Elder, painted the 'Peace Portrait' above. This famous work can be viewed at the NPG. There are numerous copies as well; in most, the queen's features are considerably softened. In 1592, Elizabeth's former champion, Sir Henry Lee, sought to regain her favor with lavish entertainment at his home in Ditchley, Oxfordshire. He had retired from court two years earlier, having offended the queen by living openly with his mistress. He commissioned this portrait to commemorate Elizabeth's visit and forgiveness. The queen stands upon a map of England, with one foot resting near Ditchley. As a result of the cutting mentioned above, the sonnet on the 'Ditchley Portrait' lacks the final word of each line. It celebrates Elizabeth's divine powers; a jeweled celestial sphere hangs from the queen's left ear, signifying her command over nature itself. The sphere had been Lee's emblem when he fought as Elizabeth's champion in the annual Accession Day tilts. The background of this portrait appears odd - it is split between blue and sunny sky on the left, and black and stormy sky on the right. This continues the theme of royal authority over nature. Tudor / Renaissance fashion buffs should note that the queen wears her lovely gown over a wheel farthingale. This style briefly continued after Elizabeth's death, largely because James I wife, Anne of Denmark, wore some of Elizabeth's gowns in portraits painted by, among others, Gheeraerts.

[edit] A Group of Protestant Divines

A Group of Protestant Divines c.1600, Oil on canvas 94x140cm, Private collection Anti-Catholic satire where the Pope, Cardinals, and a pig spit on a group of Reformation leaders, including Martin Luther, Calvin,Beza and other Protestants. This painting is a political cartoon that was a base for publications in protestant prints for centuries and is comparable with the satirical works of Lucas Cranach the Younger.

[edit] Portrait of a Boy aged Two

Portrait of a Boy aged Two. Oil on panel, 114.3 x 85.7 cm This two year old boy is wearing a dress, with a bodice and skirt over a farthingale frame. This was typical of the custom for clothing for both girls and boys until around five or six years old, when a boy would be “breeched” and dressed in trousers. In his left hand is a bunch of pansies or “heart's ease” which symbolize innocence and transience and may be a reference to the high rate of infant mortality around 1608.

[edit] Portrait of Robert Devereux, 2nd Earl of Essex

Portrait of Robert Devereux, 2nd Earl of Essex. 1596/1601, oil on wood, 114.7 x 87.7 cm (45 1/8 x 34 1/2 in.) National Gallery of Art, Washington D.C.

[edit] Portrait of William Cecil, 1st Baron Burghley

Portrait of William Cecil, 1st Baron Burghley. Oil on panel, 57.5x 42.5

Wikimedia Commons has media related to:

Marcus Gheeraerts the Younger

[edit] See also

• Artists of the Tudor court

[edit] References

Collins Baker, C. H. Lely and the Stuart Portrait Painters. 2 vols. London, 1912, 1:21-35.

Poole, Mrs. Reginald Lane. "Marcus Gheeraerts, Father and Son, Painters." The Walpole Society 3 (1914): 1-8.

Strong, Sir Roy. "Elizabethan Painting: An Approach through Inscriptions. III. Marcus Gheeraerts the Younger." The Burlington Magazine 105 (1963): 149-157.

Millar, Sir Oliver. "Marcus Gheeraerts the Younger: A Sequel through Inscriptions." The Burlington Magazine 105 (1963): 533-541.

Strong, Sir Roy. The English Icon: Elizabethan and Jacobean Portraiture. London and New York, 1969: 21-24, 269-304.

Hayes, John. British Paintings of the Sixteenth through Nineteenth Centuries. The Collections of the National Gallery of Art Systematic Catalogue. Washington, D.C., 1992: 111.