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Sir Peter Lely’s character and talent dominated the art world in the second half of the seventeenth century in England. Though Pepys famously described him as ‘a mighty proud man and full of state’, Lely’s skill for portraiture meant he assumed the mantle of Sir Anthony Van Dyck (whom he admired to such an extent that he owned Van Dyck’s last Self-Portrait, Cat.X) with ease. Despite sharing the stage with many accomplished painters, the particular brio of his technique and his considerable personal charm guaranteed him the most prestigious patronage – and for nearly twenty years royal patronage from his position as Principle Painter to King Charles II. Everyone of consequence in his age sat to him, and it is in his portraits that we form our conception of the cautious solemnity of the 1650s and the scandalous excesses of the years following the Restoration.

This portrait, set within a feigned oval stone frame with acanthus foliage, is a fine example of Lely’s technique towards the end of his career. It was dated by R. B. Becket in his Lely monograph to c.1672, and combines Lely’s mastery of Rembrandt-esque tone (learnt during his early education in Holland) with a clear admiration for Van Dyck, whose elegant style became the starting point for all Lely’s later work.

The sitter here, Sir William Bowyer, 2nd Bt. of Denham, is identified by an old inscription on the reverse of the canvas. Bowyer was born in 1639 and succeeded his father, also Sir William and sometime MP for Buckinghamshire, in 1679. He was educated at Trinity College, Cambridge from 1653-4 after which he went to Middle Temple. At Cambridge he met John Dryden, the poet, whom he is believed to have assisted with his translation of Virgil’s Aeneid. As a young man, Bowyer also travelled abroad before returning to the family seat at Denham Court in Buckinghamshire, where in later life Dryden was a regular guest. In 1679 he married the Hon. Frances Spencer, daughter of Charles Cecil, Viscount Cranborne, with whom he had three children, and was succeeded by his grandson, another William, when his eldest son Cecil predeceased him. He died on February 13th 1722.