John Cholmley

Inscriptionback to top

Inscribed, upper left: BUTLER.

This portraitback to top

Acquired as a portrait of the poet Samuel Butler, but in 1948, at the Howsham Hall sale (Hollis & Webb, 3rd day, 3 November 1948), lot 651 ‘by Riley’ was a similar portrait, inscribed John Cholmley Esq./Brother to Nathaniel Cho:/Died Feb 1693, acquired by York Art Gallery (231). [1] Provenance and inscription provide persuasive evidence of the sitter’s correct identity, but the traditional attribution to Riley has now been replaced with the slightly preferable attribution to Huysmans.

Footnotesback to top

1) Hawkesbury 1903a, p 50, no.74; York Art Gallery Cat., II, 1963, pp 74-75, pl.11, as by John Riley; York Art Gallery Cat. Supp., 1974, p 19, as ‘English c.1690’.

Referenceback to top

Piper 1963
D. Piper, Catalogue of the Seventeenth Century Portraits in the National Portrait Gallery 1625-1714, 1963, pp 50-51 (as Butler).

Conservationback to top

Lined; cleaned 1990.

Provenanceback to top

Mrs M. E. Plowright, Swaffham; purchased 1925.

Exhibitionsback to top

Department of Environment 1971-88; Lyme Park 1999-.


This extended catalogue entry is by John Ingamells, one of a limited number of entries drafted in 2010 for the incomplete catalogue, Early Stuart Portraits 1625-1685, and is as written then. For the most up-to-date details on individual Collection works, we recommend reading the information provided in the Search the Collection results on this website in parallel with this text.