Studio of John Riley

Thence by descent to the present owner.

This is one of a number of versions of a portrait type painted in Riley’s studio, known in both three-quarter and half-length variants and other examples include the one in the National Portrait Gallery, London,¹ and the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford.² John Riley studied under Isaac Fuller and Gerard Soest; from the latter he learned a forcible, straightforward style of portraiture. Riley came to prominence in the latter years of Charles II’s reign, following the death of Sir Peter Lely in 1680. He was introduced to Royal patronage by the courtier Thomas Chiffinch and the King commissioned him for a number of pictures, before eventually sitting to Riley himself. Charles, who was possibly more accustomed to the flattering style of Lely, is said to have exclaimed upon seeing the portrait: ‘Is this like me? Oddsfish, then I’m an ugly fellow!’. During the following reign, in 1689, together with Godfrey Kneller, Riley was appointed Principal Painter to King William III and Queen Mary, though there are no known portraits by him of either as sovereign.

¹ https://www.npg.org.uk/collections/search/portrait/mw01239/King-Charles-II

² https://collections.ashmolean.org/collection/search/per_page/100/offset/0/sort_by/relevance/object/44950