Old Masters Day Sale, including portrait miniatures
Old Masters Day Sale, including portrait miniatures
Property from a Private Collection
Robert Peake the Elder
Portrait of a boy, probably of the Filmer Family, in his robes of infancy holding a sprig of cherries
Lot Closed
December 8, 02:19 PM GMT
Estimate
60,000 - 80,000 GBP
Lot Details
Description
Property from a Private Collection
Robert Peake the Elder
Lincolnshire 1551–1619 London
Portrait of a boy, probably of the Filmer Family, in his robes of infancy holding a sprig of cherries
oil on panel
unframed: 113.2 x 88 cm.; 44½ x 34⅝ in.
framed: 131.5 x 105.5 cm.; 51¾ x 41½ in.
Arthur Thomas Filmer Wilson-Filmer (1895–1968);
By whom sold, London, Christie's, 27 June 1945, lot 712 (as Isaac Oliver);
David L. Style (1913–2004), Wateringbury Place, Maidstone, Kent;
By whom sold, London, Christie's, 1 June 1978, lot 346 (as Robert Peake the Elder);
Where presumably acquired by the present owner.
R. Strong, The Tudor and Stuart Monarchy, vol. II, Woodbridge 1995, p. 261, no. 219 (as Robert Peak the Elder).
For much of the twentieth century this portrait of a boy in his robes of infancy was identified as Henry Frederick Stuart (1594–1612), Prince of Wales and eldest son of King James I. However, this traditional identification was doubted by Sir Roy Strong in his 1969 publication The English Icon, where it was catalogued as 'called Henry Prince of Wales' (see literature). Despite the passing likeness with the young Prince Henry, including the boys sharing bright blue eyes, the lack of any attributes of the Prince of Wales makes identification untenable.
It is more likely that this boy was a child of the Filmer Family of East Sutton Park in Kent, the home of this painting before it was sold in 1945. The Filmers were granted East Sutton in 1570 and built the surviving house there in the next decades. It is possible that the boy may have been a son of Sir Edward Filmer (1566–1629), who is recorded to have sired 18 children with his wife Elizabeth Argall, 9 of these being males. The 1945 sale of the contents of East Sutton contained several unidentified portraits, presumably other unidentified members from the same family.
Strong had dated the painting to c. 1605, probably on the basis of the boy's costume which represents the transitional style from the late-Elizabethan to early Jacobean period. The details of the dress, with its sashing, lace collar and cuff and extravagant plumed and bejeweled hat are very beautifully rendered. It is possible that this painting follows a tradition of depicting children in bright white, a nod perhaps to symbolic notions of purity. A remarkably group portrait given to Marcus Gheeraerts the Younger of Barbara Gamage, Countess of Leicester, and her children, surviving at Penshurst, Kent, is perhaps one of the greatest examples of this fashion.1 Another group portrait of the children of the Earl of Argyll, now attributed to Adam de Colone and preserved at Inveraray Castle, is also remarkable for the shimmering white attires on display.2 The inclusion of cherries too, fruits often held by the Christ Child in renaissance paintings and referred to as representing the fruits of paradise, further supports this reading.
1 Strong 1969, no. 299, reproduced.
2 J. Thomson, The life and art of George Jameson, Oxford 1974, Appendix B, p. 147, no. 7 reproduced.