In the reign of Edward VI. GWILLIM STRETES was made Painter to the King. Strype records that he was paid fifty marks for two pictures of the King, and one of Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey, who was beheaded in 1547. KATHERINE MAYNORS and GERBACH FLICK—evidently a Dutchman, one of whose drawings belonged to Richardson and is dated 1547—were here at this time; Flick's likeness of Cranmer (signed GERBARUS FLICIUS), painted in 1546, is now in the National Portrait Gallery. They continued the practice of art in this country. At Irnham is a fine full-length portrait of Lord Darcy of Chirke, dated 1551. Nicholas Lyzardi was second painter to King Edward, and succeeded TOTO, as Sergeant-Painter to Elizabeth. JOHANNES CORVUS painted the likeness of Fox, Bishop of Winchester, which belongs to Corpus Christi College, Oxford, and which was at the National Portrait Exhibition, 1866, No. 46. Corvus has been identified by Mr. Scharf as the artist of a fine portrait, dated 1532, of Mary Tudor, wife of Louis XII., and the Duke of Suffolk. WILLIAM KEY, or CAIUS, as he called himself, was born at Breda in 1520 and died 1568. Some of his pictures were, as Mr. Scharf has noticed, in the collections of Charles I., and the Duke of Buckingham. A carver, and probably painter, well known at this period in England, whose works are, however, no longer to be identified, was Nicholas of Modena, who made pictures, possibly small coloured statues, of Henry VIII. and Francis I. It is worth while to mention that one P. Oudry, apparently a Frenchman, was busily employed in this country about 1578, and painted various portraits of Mary, Queen of Scots, one of which is in the National Portrait Gallery, while others are at Cobham, Hardwick, Hatfield, and Welbeck.
In the reign of Mary I. we find art represented by SIR ANTONIS MOR, MORO, or MORE (1512—1576—78), a native of Utrecht, who had painted and studied in Italy, Spain, and Portugal. Philip II. was his especial patron, and gave him a gold chain for the portrait of his gloomy Queen. He came to England in 1553, was made painter to the Court, and received very large prices for his pictures. He remained till the Queen's death, in 1558, when he returned to Madrid. He afterwards established himself at Brussels, under the protection of the Duke of Alva, but in 1572 removed to Antwerp, where he died. His portraits of Jeanne d'Archel, in the National Gallery, and of Sir T. Gresham, in the National Portrait Gallery, are excellent examples of his skill. Joost van Cleef (15001536?), a native of Antwerp, also painted portraits at this time with considerable success. From his overweening conceit, which led him into furious quarrels, he was called Zotte (foolish) Cleef. His portrait, by himself, is in the Althorp Gallery.
It has been said of Elizabeth, that although she had not much taste for painting, she loved pictures of herself. Her court painter was a Fleming, Lucas de Heere (1534?—1584), who had also been employed by Queen Mary, whose portrait (dated 1554) by him belongs to the Society of Antiquaries, and was at the "Old Masters," in 1880, No. 202. He painted, in 1570, the gallery of the Earl of Lincoln, describing the characteristics of different nations. With a sarcastic wit, which Elizabeth doubtless appreciated, he represented the typical Englishman as naked, with a pair of shears, and different kinds of clothes beside him, unable to decide on the best fashion. DE HEERE painted Elizabeth in full state, as she loved to be depicted, attended by Juno, Minerva and Venus. This picture remains at Hampton Court (No. 635), and is dated 1569. Mr. Wynne Finch has a capital picture of small figures, representing Frances Brandon, Duchess of Suffolk, and her second husband Adrian Stokes, dated 1559, by this able painter. Many other works by him exist in English seats. Other foreign artists of this reign were CORNELIUS VROOM, who drew designs for tapestry, representing the victory of Lord Howard over the famous "Armada" of the Spaniards (these tapestries were burnt with the Houses of Parliament in 1834); Federigo Zucchero (1643—1609), whose portrait of the Queen in a fantastic dress is in the possession of the Duke of Devonshire, and was No. 229 in the National Portrait Exhibition, 1866; and MARC GHEERAEDTS, or GARRARD (1561—1635), of Bruges. There are three portraits ascribed to Gheeraedts in the collection of the Marquis of Exeter, and others were exhibited in the first (1866) National Portrait Exhibition. The most important of all the works attributed to Gheeraedts is the group of eleven English and Spanish Statesmen assembled at Somerset House, which has been recently acquired for the National Portrait Gallery at the Hamilton Palace sale.[E] A very fine little example, signed "M.G.," is a full-length portrait of Queen Elizabeth, standing, holding a branch of olive, with a sword and a little shock dog at her feet. It belongs to the Duke of Portland, and was long lent to the South Kensington Museum. A head of Camden, in the Bodleian, is signed with the artist's name in full. A very fine full-length portrait is at Woburn Abbey; other signed specimens are at Barron Hill and Penshurst.
More interesting than these foreign artists is the name of Nicholas Hilliard (1547—1619), an Englishman, and the first native artist of importance, whose fame remains to the present time. The "Old Masters" Exhibition of 1879 contained many likenesses said to have been painted by Hilliard; among these was one of Queen Elizabeth. Hilliard's skill was specially shown in his miniatures, of which that of Jane Seymour, at Windsor, is a crowning piece. The Duke of Buccleuch has a noble series of Hilliard's and Oliver's paintings of this kind. Dr. Donne says of the former—
"An hand or eye
By Hilliard drawn is worth a historye
By a worse painter made."
The influence of Holbein is traceable in the works of Hilliard, and in those of his successor, and, probably, pupil, Isaac Oliver. One of the most able painters of this age was SIR NATHANIEL BACON, half-brother to the great Sir Francis Bacon, whose life-size portrait of himself, belonging to the Earl of Verulam, has been engraved in Walpole's "Anecdotes." Sir N. Bacon died in 1615.
