ROBERT WALKER, who died in 1658. The Protector insisted upon having the warts and pimples on his face faithfully portrayed, and gave strict injunctions both to Walker and Sir Peter Lely not to flatter him. One of Walker's portraits of Cromwell is at Warwick Castle. Some capital examples of his skill are in the National Portrait Gallery. The Restoration was not favourable to design. Charles II. had neither taste for art, nor money to encourage painters. The unbridled license of the Court defiled the studio as it did the stage; and the most popular pictures were the portraits of the rakes and wantons who clustered round the King.
Sir PETER LELY (1618—1680), originally named Van der Faes, was the very accomplished painter of the Court, some of whose better works may be compared with Van Dyck's. He came to England in 1643, and profited by his art under Charles I., the Protectorate, and Charles II. Walpole said of Lely's nymphs that they are "generally reposed on the turf, and are too wanton and too magnificent to be taken for anything but Maids of Honour."
The well-known collection of Lely's portraits at Hampton Court includes, among others, those of the Duchess of Richmond; the Countess of Rochester; Mrs. Middleton the celebrated beauty; the Countess of Northumberland; the Duchess of Cleveland, as Minerva; the Countess de Grammont, and Jane Kellaway, as Diana (misnamed Princess Mary). Mrs. Middleton, in the National Portrait Gallery, by Lely, is remarkably good. Lely fell dead before his easel, while painting a portrait of the Dowager Duchess of Somerset, November 30th, 1680.
Several English artists practised in this reign.
HENRY ANDERTON (1630—after 1665) was a portrait painter employed at Court. ISAAC FULLER (1606—1672) painted portraits and allegoric pieces. He is described as extravagant and burlesque in his tastes and manners, and his works bear the mark of this character. An epigram on a "Drunken Sot" is to this effect:—
"His head doth on his shoulder lean,
His eyes are sunk, and hardly seen;
Who sees this sot in his own colour
Is apt to say, ''twas done by Fuller.'"
JOHN GREENHILL (1649—1676) was the most celebrated of Lely's pupils. ROBERT STREATER (1624—1680) was made Serjeant-Painter to Charles II., and painted landscapes and historic works. His work still survives in the Theatre at Oxford, but we cannot echo the praise accorded to it by a rhymester who says—
"That future ages must confess they owe
To Streater more than Michael Angelo."