© National Portrait Gallery
Portrait of Barbara Villiers, Duchess of Cleveland, with her son
Artist: Sir Peter Lely (1618 - 1680)
Location: National Portrait Gallery
Date: circa 1664
Materials: oil on canvas
Dimensions: 124.7 x 102cm
Grant:
Amount Paid: £40,000 (Total: £147,000)
Vendor: Alfred Bader Fine Arts
Review number: 5584 (2005)
Provenance:
Ladislaus Bloch, Vienna; Frederick Muller, Amsterdam (auction house), 1905; ...; Messrs Shepherd; Messrs Dowdeswell before 1912; ...; Galerie Fischer, Lucern, 1990; Walter Küng; Alfred Bader Fine Arts, 2001.
Description:
Barbara Villiers was Charles II's leading mistress in the early years of his reign and became Duchess of Cleveland in 1670. This portrait depicts the King's mistress with her eldest son by the King, Charles Fitzroy, later created Duke of Southampton and then Duke of Cleveland. It is the most audacious of Lely's role portraits as it depicts the mistress and illegitimate son as Madonna and Child.
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