Sir Paul Rycaut

This portraitback to top

NPG 1874 appears to be an original Lely portrait. The handling of the head is very free, although the drapery tends to the perfunctory. It agrees closely with White’s engraving, and no other version is known. The date is indicated by circumstance: after eleven years Rycaut returned from the Levant late in 1678, providing an ante quam and Lely’s death late in 1680 a post quam.

Referenceback to top

Beckett 1951
R. B. Beckett, Lely, 1951, no.455.

Piper 1963
D. Piper, Catalogue of the Seventeenth Century Portraits in the National Portrait Gallery 1625-1714, 1963, p 306.

Conservationback to top

Lined; cleaned 1985; scattered retouchings in the face and wig.

Provenanceback to top

Sir Paul Methuen (1672-1757); by descent at Corsham Court¹ to the 3rd Baron Methuen; his sale, Christie’s, 14 May 1920, lot 24, bt. Leggatt for the NPG.

¹ See J. Britton, An Historical Account of Corsham House, 1806, p 58, no.196; Lord Methuen, Corsham Court, 1903, p 5, no.38 as ‘from Sir Paul Methuen’s collection’, presumably the diplomat Paul Methuen (1672-1757), but not listed in T. Martyn, The English Connoisseur, 1767, II, pp 15-28 (list of Paul Methuen’s pictures in Grosvenor Street, London).

Exhibitionsback to top

First Exhibition of National Portraits, South Kensington, 1866, no.957; Tercentenary Exhibition, Royal Society, Burlington House, 1960; The Quiet Conquest, Museum of London, 1985, no.213.

Reproductionsback to top

R. White 1679 (History of the Turkish Empire 1680) and 1681 (Gracian’s The Critic, trans. 1681); M. V der Gucht.<sup>1

1</sup> With arms (arg. a fess raguly gu. & another in base in this form with a tree trunk fructed purp.).


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.

View all known portraits for Sir Paul Rycaut