Queen Mary II

1 portrait

Queen Mary II, by Sir Peter Lely, circa 1677 -NPG 6214 - © National Portrait Gallery, London

© National Portrait Gallery, London

Later Stuart Portraits Catalogue

Queen Mary II

by Sir Peter Lely
circa 1677
49 3/8 in. x 40 in. (1254 mm x 1019 mm)
NPG 6214

This portraitback to top

Painted at about the time of her marriage in the autumn of 1677, the orange colour of her dress perhaps referring to her new title of the Princess of Orange. While the portrait is substantially by Lely, it is possible that the vase of flowers was painted by Henry Lankrink who was said to have painted flowers, among other things, in those pictures which Lely ‘intended to gain Esteem by’. [1] A related version in the Royal Collection shows her seated in a carved chair with the fluted column on the left, [2] probably pair to a portrait of William at Syon House. Another good early version is in a private collection in The Hague. [3] Other versions include Sotheby’s, 9 April 1977, lot 23 (wearing a silver dress); formerly with W. Stirling of Keir; in the musées Royaux des Beaux-Arts de Belgique (3514) and, reduced (49 x 41cm) and attributed to C. Netscher, in the Landesmuseum, Mainz (see William III, NPG 1902). A half-length is with Lord Montagu of Beaulieu, and a bust-length miniature attributed to Richard Gibson was sold Sotheby’s, 20 July 1981, lot 5.
James II owned four unfinished half-length portraits of Mary by Lely (and one of the Prince of Orange). [4]

Footnotesback to top

1) See C. MacLeod in C. MacLeod & J. M. Alexander, Painted Ladies at the Court of Charles II, exhibition catalogue, NPG/New Haven, 2001, p 183, quoting Buckeridge, 1706, p 442.
2) O. Millar, The Tudor, Stuart and Early Georgian Pictures in the Collection of Her Majesty The Queen, 1963, no.250, pl.105.
3) Illus. William and Mary, Arts Council, 1950, no.30, pl.xi; described in the catalogue as having been given by the sitter to Cornelis van Eck, a professor of law at Utrecht.
4) O. Millar, The Tudor, Stuart and Early Georgian Pictures in the Collection of Her Majesty The Queen, 1963, p 123.

Referenceback to top

Simon & Saywell (eds.) 2004

Provenanceback to top

Christie’s, 17 May 1973, lot 23 (‘Portrait of a Lady’), bought Sir Frank Bowden, Thame Court, Oxon.; Sotheby’s, 14 July 1993, lot 25, bought Hazlitt, Gooden & Fox, for the NPG.

Exhibitionsback to top

Painted Ladies at the Court of Charles II, NPG/New Haven, 2001, no.82.

Reproductionsback to top

Pub. R. Tompson (J. Chaloner Smith, British Mezzotinto Portraits, 34; C. Blackett-Ord, ‘Richard Tompson’, Wal. Soc., LXX, 2008, T.48, fig.42).


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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