LATE 17TH CENTURY PORTRAIT OF KING JAMES II WHEN DUKE OF YORK - AFTER SIR PETER LELY (1616 - 1680)

Fine and imposing early 18th century portrait of James II (1633–1701), when Duke of York, full-length, wearing the Collar and Great George of the Order of the Garter with identifying inscription (upper left)

The sitter was the son of King Charles I and Queen Henrietta Maria. He first married Anne Hyde (1660), and secondly Mary of Modena (1673). On the death of his brother Charles II in 1685, James II come to the throne. His coronation took place on 23 April, 1685 at Westminster Abbey. He abdicated in December 1688 and died in exile in France in 1701. The Duke of York, the future James II, is shown here wearing robes of state and the Collar and Great George of the Order of the Garter. The Order was revived at the Restoration along with a new set of attire and this type of portrait would typically have been commissioned either by the sitter for presentation to a loyal courtier or by a royalist supporter to demonstrate his allegiance to the crown.

The prime portrait by Lely was copied many times and became, to some extent, his official likeness. Lely painted a number of portraits of James when Duke of York, including a pair of him and his wife Anne Hyde dating from c.1660 (Scottish National Portrait Gallery). James was an important patron of Lely and commissioned in 1666 a series of portraits of the flag officers who had served under him in the battle of Lowestoft, as well as portraits of himself and his family. He even owned three unfinished portraits of himself by Lely, which he presumably acquired directly from the artist's studio after his death.

At Lely's death in 1680 there were 16 copies of portraits of the Duke of York, including six full-lengths in his studio, and James II's inventory of 1688 records three unfinished portraits of the then king, all at St James's Palace.

The present picture was a popular design of which the prime version appears to be that at Windsor (see O. Millar, The Tudor, Stuart and early Georgian Pictures in the Collection of Her Majesty the Queen, London, 1963, p. 121, no. 241)

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Provenance: Appleby Castle, Appleby-in-Westmorland Cumbria.

Oil on canvas:  91 x 52 3/8 in. (231.1 x 133 cm.) Framed:  99 x 64 in , (162.5 x 249cm.)

Price: £32000