Unknown man, formerly known as John Speed
© National Portrait Gallery, London
Unknown man, formerly known as John Speed
by Unknown artist
oil on panel, circa 1550-1575
23 3/4 in. x 17 3/8 in. (603 mm x 441 mm)
Transferred from The British Museum, London, 1879
Primary Collection
NPG 571
Sitterback to top
- John Speed (1552?-1629), Historian and cartographer. Sitter associated with 9 portraits.
Linked publicationsback to top
- Saywell, David; Simon, Jacob, Complete Illustrated Catalogue, 2004, p. 688
- Strong, Roy, Tudor and Jacobean Portraits, 1969, p. 301
Events of 1550back to top
Current affairs
John Dudley, Earl of Warwick is made Lord President of the Council and Master of the King's HouseholdAltars are replaced by communion tables in all London churches on the orders of the new Bishop Nicholas Ridley.
Treaty of Boulogne - English forces withdraw from Scotland and Boulogne is returned to the French in return for a substantial payment.
Art and science
The Italian artist Giorgio Vasari writes Le Vite dei più eccellenti pittori, scultori e architettori (Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculptors and Architects), the first work of Italian art history.International
Election of Pope Julius III in Rome.Comments back to top
We are currently unable to accept new comments, but any past comments are available to read below.
If you need information from us, please use our Archive enquiry service . Please note that we cannot provide valuations. You can buy a print or greeting card of most illustrated portraits. Select the portrait of interest to you, then look out for a Buy a Print button. Prices start at around £6 for unframed prints, £16 for framed prints. If you wish to license an image, select the portrait of interest to you, then look out for a Use this image button, or contact our Rights and Images service. We digitise over 8,000 portraits a year and we cannot guarantee being able to digitise images that are not already scheduled.
Related pages
- Searching for Shakespeare
- Brilliant Women
- Popular Prints of Victoria and Albert
- Nelson: before and after Trafalgar
- Making History: Printed Portraiture in Tudor and Stuart Britain
- Gunpowder, Treason and Plot
- Chartist Portraits
- Silhouettes display, 2004-05
- William Hazlitt's Spirit of the Age
- Return to Life: A New Look at the Portrait Bust
- Restoration Lives: Samuel Pepys and His Circle
- Theodore de Mayerne
- Mary, Queen of Scots: Fact and Fiction
- Escape to Eden
- Mary, Queen of Scots
- Bank of America Merrill Lynch, Art Conservation Project
- His picture in little: Shakespeare, Hamlet and Tacita Dean
- Votes for women
- Rebel women
- 'This sceptred isle': Shakespeare and the Plantagenets
- 2019 Anniversaries
- Peterloo 1819: democracy, protest and justice
- Everyday icons: collecting popular portraits
- Tudor and Elizabethan matching pairs
- Love Stories
- Icons and Identities: Shakespeare to Winehouse
- Love stories: art, passion and tragedy