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Anne Hyde, Duchess of York; King James II

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Anne Hyde, Duchess of York; King James II, by Sir Peter Lely, circa 1661-1662 -NPG 5077 - © National Portrait Gallery, London

© National Portrait Gallery, London

Later Stuart Portraits Catalogue

Anne Hyde, Duchess of York; King James II

by Sir Peter Lely
circa 1661-1662
55 in. x 75 1/8 in. (1397 mm x 1920 mm)
NPG 5077

This portraitback to top

James had met Anne Hyde, daughter of the Earl of Clarendon, in Bruges in 1656 when she was Maid of Honour to the Princess of Orange (the Duke’s sister). They married in London in some secrecy on 3 September 1660; a still-born son was born on 22 October and the marriage was made public in December.
James is shown carrying the baton of a field officer, and his high-topped boots suggest his recent service as a cavalryman in France and Flanders. [1] The composition derives from the separate portraits of the Duke of York and his Duchess, formerly in the Clarendon collection, and now in the Scottish NPG (PG 901, PG 1179), probably painted soon after the sitters’ marriage. [2] The Edinburgh picture shows the Duke pointing to the left with his left hand and his field officer’s staff in his right.
Millar has described NPG 5077 as a replica of a composition the finest version of which is at Petworth; [3] there are copies at Euston [4] and formerly at Clumber Park (sold Christie’s, 31 March 1939, lot 30). Two versions were listed at Cannons in 1725. [5] A drawing from the figure of James ascribed to Caspar Netscher is in the National Gallery of Ireland (2201).

Footnotesback to top

1) As suggested by J. Callow, The Making of King James II, 2000, p 130.
2) See O. Millar in O. Millar, Sir Peter Lely, exhibition catalogue, NPG, 1978, p 54 under no.32.
3) Millar, loc. cit.; Petworth Cat. 1920, p 61, no.433; R. B. Beckett, Lely, 1951, no.575, pl.81.
4) Exhibited William and Mary, Arts Council, 1950, no.32.
5) Chandos Inventory 1725, Wal. Soc., LXVII, 2005, pp 117, 127. It was one of these, presumably, which appeared in the Chandos sale, May 1747 ‘the Duke & Dutches of York half len. Double Sr. P. Lely [rectangular]’ (G. Vertue, Notebooks, Wal. Soc., XXII, 1934, p 136).

Referenceback to top

Brewer 1825
J. N. Brewer, Beauties of Ireland, 1825, I, p 241.

Millar 1953
O. Millar, MS catalogue of Pictures at Malahide Castle, 1953, no.138 (cf. O. Millar, The Tudor, Stuart and Early Georgian Pictures in the Collection of Her Majesty The Queen, 1963, p 127).

Simon & Saywell (eds.) 2004
Complete Illustrated Catalogue, NPG, ed. J. Simon & D. Saywell, 2004, p 332.

Provenanceback to top

[‘… probably presented by the sitters to Richard Talbot, Duke of Tyrconnel’, according to Christie’s] by descent to Hon. Rose Talbot, Malahide Castle; sold Christie’s, Dublin, 26 March 1976, lot 43, bought Leggatt for the NPG.

Exhibitionsback to top

Swift and his Age, Dublin, 1967, no.38; Chequers 1978; Elias Ashmole, Oxford, 1983, no.53.


This extended catalogue entry is from the National Portrait Gallery collection catalogue: John Ingamells, National Portrait Gallery: Later Stuart Portraits 1685–1714, National Portrait Gallery, 2009, and is as published 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.

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