4 OF 73 
Robert Devereux, 2nd Earl of Essex
4 of 73 portraits by Isaac Oliver
© National Portrait Gallery, London
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Robert Devereux, 2nd Earl of Essex
by Isaac Oliver
watercolour on vellum, after 1596
2 in. x 1 5/8 in. (51 mm x 41 mm) oval
Purchased, 1973
Primary Collection
NPG 4966
Sitterback to top
- Robert Devereux, 2nd Earl of Essex (1565-1601), Soldier; favourite of Elizabeth I. Sitter associated with 25 portraits.
Artistback to top
- Isaac Oliver (circa 1565-1617), Miniature painter. Artist or producer associated with 73 portraits, Sitter in 5 portraits.
This portraitback to top
A Venetian observer described how, after taking Cadiz, Essex had 'on this last voyage...began to grow a beard, which he used not to wear'. This portrait was painted soon afterwards and shows him with a blue ribbon around his neck from which the 'Lesser George', or informal insignia of the Order of the Garter, would have been suspended.
Linked publicationsback to top
- Smartify image discovery app
- MacLeod, Catharine; Rab, MacGibbon; Button, Victoria; Coombs, Katherine; Derbyshire, Alan, Elizabethan Treasures: Miniatures from Hilliard and Oliver, 2019 (accompanying the exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery from 21 February - 19 May 2019), p. 144
- Saywell, David; Simon, Jacob, Complete Illustrated Catalogue, 2004, p. 208
- Walker, Richard, Miniatures: 300 Years of the English Miniature, 1998, p. 8
Linked displays and exhibitionsback to top
- His Picture in Little: Shakespeare, Hamlet and Tacita Dean (15 March 2018 - 28 May 2018)
Events of 1596back to top
Current affairs
Fears of Spanish invasion of England and Ireland.An expedition under Robert Devereux, Earl of Essex and Charles Howard, Baron Howard of Effingham sacks Cádiz, Spain.
Robert Cecil (later Earl of Salisbury) is made Secretary of State.
Sir Francis Drake dies from fever during an expedition to attack Spanish territories in the New World.
Art and science
The poet and administrator Edmund Spenser publishes the last three books of The Faerie Queene, an epic allegorical poem in praise of Queen Elizabeth I.The unusual narrative portrait of the soldier and diplomat Henry Unton is commissioned by his widow.
The actor and theatre manager James Burbage builds Blackfriars Theatre, London.
International
Spanish forces capture Calais, France.The Battle of Keresztes - Mehmed III, Sultan of the Ottoman Empire defeats the combined forces of Sigmund Báthory, Prince of Transylvania and Maximilian, Archduke of Austria.
Sigismund III of Poland transfers the capital of Poland from Kraków to Warsaw.
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