The Windsor Beauties by Sir Peter Lely and the Collection of Paintings at St James's Palace, 1674

Journal of the History of Collections 14 no. 2 2002) pp. 205±213 The Windsor Beauties by Sir Peter Lely and the collection of paintings at St James's Palace, 1674

Michael Wenzel

The Windsor Beauties, a set of ten portraits of ladies by Sir Peter Lely 1618±80), belongs amongst the most valuable contributions of royal art patronage of the early Restoration in England. Up to now most art historians have assumed the room with the Windsor Beauties to have been in the apartments of the Duke and the Duchess of York at Whitehall in the 1660s, but there is good reason for locating it at their residence at St James's Palace. This article includes a hitherto unpublished inventory which increases our knowledge of the ducal collection of paintings. The function of the collection and the iconography of the portraits within the ducal apartments are at the centre of interest of this study.

The Windsor Beauties, a set of ten portraits of ladies Whitehall' ± evidently provided the basis for locat- painted in the 1660s by Sir Peter Lely 1618±80), ing the White Room at Whitehall. The rooms listed represents one of the most valuable contributions of prior to the White Room are, however, situated at royal art patronage in early Restoration England St James's. Amongst them were a further `Duch- Figs. 1, 2). Anne Hyde 1637±71), ®rst wife of the esses Dressinge roome' and a `passage betweene the Duke of York later King James II), is regarded as its white Roome and the dressing Roome' fol. 7v) that commissioner. The earliest entry in a surviving can be assumed to refer to the location of the inventory of the Duke's possessions dates back to portraits. On the day the diarist Samuel Pepys the year 1674, indicating that it had been made after 1633±1703) mentions the series 21 August 1668) the decease of the ®rst Duchess of York. This he visited Whitehall as well as St James's, so that inventory see Appendix), kept in the Bodleian the evidence he provides is also ambivalent. Never- Library, Oxford, is subdivided into object groups, theless, the context of the set of portraits in the although the section `Furniture of Roomes con- diary can unambiguously be assigned to his stay at stantly up' fols. 6r±8r) is organized as a list of St James's Palace:3 room ®ttings. The description of the rooms, for Up betimes and with my people again to work, and ®nished inexplicable reasons, does not follow the sequence all before noon; and then by water to White-hall and there of apartments at Whitehall and St James's that had did tell the Duke of York that I done; and he hath to my been assigned to the ducal couple, so impeding the great content desired me to come to him at Sunday next in reconstruction of how these rooms were organized. the afternoon to read it over, by which I have more time to consider and correct it. . . . The paintings of the Windsor series are listed under the White Room fol. 7r), for which the location After dinner, I by coach to my bookseller's in Duck-lane within Whitehall or St James's ± as given for most of and there did spend a little time and regarder su moher, and so to St James's, where I did a little ordinary business; the other rooms in this inventory ± is unfortunately and by and by comes Monsieur Colbert, the French missing. Up to now most art historians have assumed Imbassador to make his ®rst visit to the Duke of York, the White Room to be situated at Whitehall,1 but and then to the Duchess. And I saw it: a silly piece of there is good reason for locating it instead at St ceremony, he saying only a few formal words. A comely James's Palace.2 man, and in a black suit and cloak of silk; which is a strange fashion now, it hath been so long left o€. This day I did The entry in the inventory following that for the ®rst see the Duke of York's room of pictures of some White Room ± the `Duchesses dressinge roome at Maids of Honour, done by Lilly; good, but not like.4

# Oxford University Press 2002 0954-6650 02 michael wenzel

Fig. 1. Sir Peter Lely, Barbara Villiers, Duchess of Cleveland, c.1664±5. 124.56101.6 cm. Hampton Court Palace. The Royal Collection, # 2002, Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II.

St James's Palace, the main domicile of the Duke and Dressing Room which could lead to the assumption the Duchess of York, had been extensively altered that the White Room was located in the part of the since 1660 Fig. 3). During the time of the Inter- building named in the plan as the King's Lodgings. regnum the estate was used as a military head- This may seem evident since there is no secure quarters and barracks. The ducal apartment, evidence of whether the apartments of the Duke of situated on the garden front, was so luxuriously York were located in this part of the palace or in the furnished that a French visitor concluded that the new wing erected prior to 1682 on the west side of Duke and his wife were accommodated better than the Duchess's accommodation, containing three con- the King or the Queen. According to the documents nected rooms on its main ¯oor.6 However, the room of the King's Works, the most extravagant furniture following the dressing room in the King's Lodgings was to be found in the bedroom of the Duchess, but a is ± at least on the plans recorded later ± relatively reconstruction of the room organization within the small, so that it is also likely ± and with a higher palace is dicult due to the insuciently recorded degree of probability ± that the White Room was material of ground plans.5 situated together with the library in the west wing A simple and incomplete ground plan of the palace just mentioned. Furthermore, those two rooms from 1689 contains the names of the di€erent rooms belong to the few listed in the inventory of 1674 of the Duchess's apartments Fig. 4). These names that are not assigned to a particular occupant and rarely coincide with those from the 1674 inventory, could, therefore, have ful®lled general functions. although it does, indeed, report a passage behind the After the second wedding of the Duke of York in

206 the windsor beauties by sir peter lely

Fig. 2. Sir Peter Lely, Frances Stuart, Duchess of Richmond, c.1662±5. 125.76103.5 cm. Hampton Court Palace. The Royal Collection, # 2002, Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II.

Fig. 3. St James's Palace, view from south- west, c.1705 from Kip's Britannia Illustrata, 1708).

207 michael wenzel

Fig. 4. St James's Palace, outline plan, 1689. British Museum, London.

1673, the apartments formerly assigned to the Duch- The recording of further paintings owned by the ess were rearranged for Mary of Modena. The Duke of York is, however, limited to two rooms: the ground plan of 1689 therefore gives an account of Oce and the Green Mohair Closet at Whitehall. this later state, whereas one can assume that the Both collections had been laid out as picture galleries inventory of 1674 represents the situation during the but were obviously not excessively valuable. The residence of Anne Hyde prior to these changes. collection's emphasis is on portraits of the royal According to historical sources, it was especially family as well as of the English and European the apartments of the Duchess that were most nobility, landscapes, portraits of unnamed subjects, expensively furnished,7 which can be con®rmed by and also a very small number of religious and the entries in the inventory of 1674. This is another mythological subjects. The relatively large number fact in favour of the assumption that the Windsor of unnamed female portraits is remarkable, especially Beauties were located at St James's Palace, since these in the Green Mohair Closet, which contains further female portraits were, according to the inventory portraits of `Windsor Beauties': Mrs Myddelton, the records of 1674, the only paintings in the ducal Duchess of Cleveland and the Countess of Rochester apartments and state rooms of the Palace and had fol. 17v, nos. 43, 47, 51). represented the most important and most extensive In contrast to those paintings the Windsor series is commission under the patronage of the Duchess of clearly assigned to a speci®c room and therefore to a York. The majority of the rooms were decorated particular furnishing programme. In the inventory of with tapestries of gold thread or with wall hangings 1674 fol. 22v) only Lely's portraits of the Admirals made of damask or silk. The inventory contains the and that of the Duke in the Great Chamber of usual furniture such as seating, tables mostly made Culford Hall are organized in a similar way.9 This of tropical woods, e.g. `Jemaica wood'), mirrors, etc.8 room is marked clearly as a main State room since it

208 the windsor beauties by sir peter lely occupies a special position within the inventory list. right. However, it is crucial to note that the icono- Besides that, at Culford Hall further paintings were graphy of the Schiavone panels contains speci®c levels placed only in the bedrooms of the King and the of meaning that are fundamentally coded in the Duke: these paintings alone were portraits of mem- encounter between man and woman, the setting up bers of the royal family. Thus, the portrait galleries of matrimony or other family rites of passage between in the possession of the Duke and the Duchess of the generations, all these topics being embedded in a York were laid out as both functionally and pro- co- or superordinate pastoral context.12 grammatically complementary ± as representations of The technique ± canvas on panel ± and the format gender in court society. of the Schiavone panels unambiguously refer to their The inventory of the White Room stands out from origin in Italian interior decoration or to their initial those of the other rooms in many ways. There is no assignment to a marital bed or, less probably, a clear assignment of the room to any one of the cassone) of the sixteenth century. Consequently, the apartments in the inventory list. The room is char- paintings can be seen according to a tradition of acterized as remarkable on account of its wall hang- decorative art, summarized under the collective term ings made of white sarcenet, a silk material that gave cassone painting, that was commissioned for the the room its name, and of blue mohair. `Six narrow camera of the bridal pair.13 The painting showing long pictures' were situated below the female por- the Briseis episode taken from the Iliad, though not traits: they are convincingly identi®ed as paintings by integrated in the White Room, clearly points towards Andrea Schiavone 1522±63) now at Hampton Court this topic: Achilles had to surrender his beautiful and Kensington Fig. 5).10 This set of paintings of an captive to Agamemnon, later to be returned to him so Italian Old Master is taken to represent by far the that Briseis could pin her hopes on a marriage with most valuable part of the art gallery owned by the Achilles again. There is good reason to assume that Duke of York.11 Of these seven paintings, the six the Schiavone panels, traditionally codi®ed by their kept at Hampton Court, with widths of approxi- form, content and initial function, were consciously mately 105±107 cm apart from one panel of 116.3 installed below six of the Windsor portraits as cm) di€er in width only negligibly from those of the representations of a `female' iconography relating to Windsor series c.101±103.5 cm). The seventh paint- marriage, love, fertility, family and household. ing, however, The Departure of Briseis according to This leads to the conclusion that the White Room older interpretations a Rape of Helena) now at can be assigned to the female sphere, although it was Kensington, is, at 19.26172 cm, remarkably wider, not speci®cally registered as belonging to the apart- and a location in the White Room is hence unlikely. ments of the Duchess in the inventory and would, The subjects of the six panels formerly in the therefore, initially have been interpreted as a room of White Room are rather vague. Nearly all of the general representation of the ducal couple. This paintings share a common subject matter, in that assumption reinforces the exceptional degree of in¯u- they show pastoral settings. Three of them are related ence and self-consciousness of Anne Hyde in her to the biblical account of Jacob and Esau: The Meeting elevated position as Duchess of York until the late of Jacob and Rachel, The Meeting of Jacob and Esau and 1660s, which had also been recorded in other historical The Blessing of Jacob. The identi®cation and inter- sources.14 Although the last years before her death in pretation of the particular scenes will not be discussed 1671 were marked by personal illness and bereave- here since the topic is a demanding one in its own ments, the Duchess and her court were certainly able to

Fig. 5. Andrea Schiavone, The Meeting of Jacob and Rachel, c.1550. 18.26105.3 cm. Hampton Court Palace. The Royal Collection, # 2002, Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II.

209 michael wenzel develop the gendered iconography of the White Room. St James's Palace, as the main residence of the Duke Compared with it, the complementary gendered pro- and Duchess of York, had been adjusted mainly for the gramme of the portrait galleries at St James's and at representation of the Duchess and of the wider net- Culford Hall was a more traditional subject in Euro- work of ladies at the English Court. The White Room pean court culture. There was no speci®c knowledge contained, along with its set of female portraits, the or connoisseurship necessary to create such a theme.15 valuable Schiavone panels and its sumptuous wall Though rare, the combination of female portraits and hangings, a type of decoration that could project a gendered Italian paintings of the cassone type was not great range of visual in¯uence. After the Duke suc- absolutely unusual in late seventeenth-century Eng- ceeded to the throne as King James II in 1685, he land. A set of copies after Polidoro da Caravaggio,16 reinforced this perception by giving St James's Palace `narrow long pictures' showing Psyche subjects and to the Queen as her residence a role that formerly had putto-friezes, was let into the panelling of the Beauty been ful®lled by Somerset House, which at this time Room at Petworth House, above portraits of ladies of was still in the occupation of the dowager Queen the court painted by Michael Dahl in c.1700.17 It is also Catherine). The Schiavone panels, brought to Ken- very likely that the Polidoro panels had hung already in sington around 1697, also formed part of the inventory a similar manner with female portraits by Van Dyck at in the Queen's apartments there, until they were Northumberland House in 1671.18 transferred to Hampton Court in 1833.

Appendix

Excerpts of the inventory of the Duke of York, 1671±74 Bodleian Library, Oxford, ms Bodl. 891) [fol. 1v] Dukes stool Roome at Whitehall Goods of his Roy:ll Highnesse the Duke of Yorke [...] in the custody and Charge of Philipp Kinnersley Duchesses Clossett at St James's Yeoman of his R:ll Highnesse wardrobe of Beds: [...] the ®rst of June 1674 The great Bedchamber [tapestries] Hung round with Dutch guylt leather [fol. 7v] [fol. 2v] Dukes yellow Clossett Rich Beds apparelles Hung round with yellow Damaske . . . [...] Duchesses Dressing roome Hung round wth guylt leather . . . [fol. 5v] Duchesses stoole Roome at St James's Cloathes of State Hung round with green silk and thread Damaske [...] hangings Chayres Stooles & Cushions, without furniture and The passage betweene the white Roome and dressing skreens Roome [...] Hung wth Guylt Leather t [fol. 6r] Groomes of the bedchamber at S James's th Furniture of Roomes constantly up Hung round w green and white silke & thread Duches's green Clossett att Whitehall damask hangings . . . [...] [fol. 7r] Duchesses stool Roome White Room [...] Hunge wth white sarsanett, and over it blew Groom of the Bedchambers Roome Mohair with silke fringe, and hung about with [...] pictures viz the Duchesse of Richmonds, the

210 the windsor beauties by sir peter lely

Countesse of Northumberlands, Lady €ran Hide, 5 Duke of Glocester . . . lady €amouth, Duchesse of Cleaveland, Mrs 6 A Lady . . . Midletons, Lady Denhams, Lady whitemores, 7 A Lady . . . Lady Henriett Hide, Lady Sunderlands, Madam 8 A yong man . . . Grammonds gone for €rame, six narrow long 9 A woman . . . pictures under the great ones, a Jemaica wood table 10 A woman . . . and stand 11 Upon Copper wth a guylt frame, Duchesses dressinge roome at Whitehall 12 A Venus and Cupid . . . Hung round wth green velvett and a partycoloured 13 A Dutch print . . . silk fringe . . . 14 A Landshape . . . The Library at St James's 15 King of Spaine . . . a Clossett within it 16 A Landshape . . . [...] 17 A Landshape . . . [fol. 8v] 18 A litle picture . . . Dukes Blew Clossett at St James's 19 A Landshape . . . Hung round with Damaske . . . 20 A Landshape . . . Duchesses dressinge room at Whitehall 21 A picture . . . [repetition of the entry of fol. 7r] 22 A Perspective, Lady Mary's Clossett at St James's 23 A naked Venus . . . Hung with blew Damask with gold and silver fringe . . . [fol. 17v] Lady Annes Clossett at St James's Pictures in the green Mohaire Clossett at Whitehall Hung with green Morello Mohayre, wth silver and 24 A Lady . . . gold fringe . . . 25 Lady Su€olke . . . 26 Duke of Cabridge . . . [fol. 8r] 27 A Lady . . . Lady Maryes clossett at Richmond 28 Our Lady and Christ . . . Hung round with purple and white, and Lemon 29 A litle picture . . . and white Drugett . . . 30 A Cruci®x . . . Dukes Clossett at Whitehall 31 A church in perspective . . . Hung round with sad coloured Mohaire with party 32 Our Saviour . . . coloured silk fringe . . . 33 A Lady . . . [fol. 9v] 34 A Lady . . . Cabenetts, Rich Tables, Stands, Looking glasses, 35 Queen Mother . . . Branches sconces, Andirons & 36 A Lady . . . [...] 37 Duke of York . . . [fol. 10r] 38 Lady Anne . . . Carpetts 39 A picture . . . [...] 40 A Lady . . . 41 A Lady . . . [fol. 11v] 42 Duke of Yorke in st Georges Robes . . . Curtaines 43 Mrs Midlton . . . [...] 44 A Lady . . . [fol. 16r] 45 St John's . . . Pictures in the oce 46 A litle round Landshape . . . 1 A picture of ¯owers with a guylt frame 47 Duchesse of Cleaveland . . . 2 A small Landshape . . . 48 A Lady . . . 3 Princesse Royalls pict[ure] . . . 49 The King in st Georges Robes . . . 4 The late kings pict[ure] . . . 50 A Lady . . .

211 michael wenzel

51 Lady Heriett Hide . . . The Kinges bedchamber 52 Late king . . . Hung with grideline and white thread Damask [...] hangings & Matted under, one landshape chymney peice, two white Calicoe window Curtaines . . . [fol. 21v] two chrystall Lookeinglasses : The Queenes, Goods of his Royall Highnesse the Duke of York Duchesses, Princesse Royall, Lady Maryes and at Culford hall in the charge of Madam Elliott: 23 Prince of Orange's Pictures . . . r Octob: 1671 Kings back staires [...] Gentlemens Beds [fol. 22v] [...] Great Chamber [fol. 23v] Hung round with green and white silk and thread [...] Damaske with Matt under the hangings, the Dukes Dukes Bedchamber picture and eight of the Admiralls viz prince Hung round wth Blew, goldcolour and white Rupert, Generalls, Sr Jn Lawsons, Sr Christopher brockado thread and silk Damaske, and Matted Minnes, Sr Wm Barkley, Sr Joseph Jourden, Sr under the hangings, one landshape Chymney peice Tho: Titteman & Sr Jn: Harman, ve guylt . . . Maddams Madamozells & the Duke of sconces, two chystall [sic] Lookeinglasses, six white Cambridges pictures . . . Calicoe window Curtaines, one Elbow chaire, two Dukes backstaires high stooles, four foulding stooles, one Gentlemens beds Jemaicawood table & stands wth brasses [...]

Address for correspondence architectural history of the Royal Apartments 1240±1698 New Haven and London, 1999), esp. pp. 124±5. However, Simon Dr Michael Wenzel, Herzog Anton Ulrich-Museum, Thurley kindly con®rmed the thesis of the author in a personal Museumstraûe 1, D-38100 Braunschweig, Germany. enquiry on 5 June 2000. [email protected] 4 R. C. Latham and W. Matthews eds.), The Diary of Samuel Pepys, vol. ix: 1668±1669 London, 1976), pp. 283±5. 5 Cf. H. M. Colvin et al., The History of the King's Works, vol. v: Notes and references 1660±1782 London, 1976), p. 233, and kind communication 1 Following the account given by O. Millar, The Tudor, Stuart by Susanne Groom, Historic Royal Palaces, East Molesey and Early Georgian Pictures in the Collection of Her Majesty The Surrey), on 21 July 1997. Queen London, 1963), p. 124, almost all relevant literature 6 Colvin, op. cit. note 5), pp. 233±6 and pls. 25±6. makes the same statement, e.g. J. D. Stewart, `Pin-ups or Virtues? the concept of the ``Beauties'' in late Stewart por- 7 See note 5. traiture', in J. D. Stewart and H. W. Liebert, English Portraits 8 Regarding the various ®ttings as furnishing and textiles, cf. the of the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries Los Angeles, 1974), valuable remarks and comments of terms in P. Thornton, pp. 3±43, esp. p. 3, and S. G. Tasch, Studien zum weiblichen Seventeenth-Century Interior Decoration in England, France and RollenportraÈt in England von Anthonis van Dyck bis Joshua Holland New Haven and London, 1978). Reynolds Weimar, 1999), p. 48. 9 The eight portraits of the Duke's ¯ag-ocers in the Battle of 2 This has been indicated by O. Millar, The Queen's Pictures Lowestoft at Culford Hall are part of a set of thirteen paintings London, 1977), p. 70. Knowing the author's thesis from his now in the National Maritime Museum at Greenwich except unpublished dissertation M. Wenzel, `Heldinnengalerie ± for the portrait of Prince Rupert, now in the Royal Collection). Schonheitengalerie. Studien zu Genese und Funktion weibli- È See Millar, op. cit. note 1), p. 123. cher Bildnisgalerien 1470±1715' [Heidelberg 2001], pp. 283± 7), Catharine MacLeod remarks in a recent essay that during 10 Ibid., p. 124. These paintings cannot be detected in the royal the reign of Charles II the Windsor Beauties `hung either at inventories drawn up prior to 1674. The only other set of Whitehall or St James's'. See C. MacLeod, ```Good, but not paintings in the Royal Collection that could be identi®ed with like'': Peter Lely, portrait practice and the creation of a court the `narrow long pictures' is by Polidoro da Caravaggio. But outlook', in C. MacLeod and J. Marciari Alexander eds.), this set was at this time already in the ownership of the King, Painted Ladies: Women at the Court of Charles II London and brother of the Duke. The description as `narrow long picture' New Haven, 2001), pp. 50±61, esp. p. 53. or `piece' in contemporary inventories is characteristic of this 3 Even in the latest monograph of Whitehall no indication of a genre. White Room in the apartment of the Duke and the Duchess of 11 The high esteem of the complementary set by Polidoro da York can be found; see S. Thurley, Whitehall Palace: An Caravaggio in the ownership of the Crown is also remarkable.

212 the windsor beauties by sir peter lely

This set was purchased by Charles I, but it was sold to the 10th Art: Gender ± representation ± identity Manchester and New Earl of Northumberland during the Interregnum. It was York, 1997), pp. 21±46. returned to the Crown during the Restoration by the Earl of 14 See P. Earle, The Life and Times of James II London, 1972), Northumberland after the Earl had secured copies of it. See J. pp. 52±7, 85±6. Wood, `Van Dyck and the Earl of Northumberland: taste and collecting in Stuart England', in S. J. Barnes and A. K. 15 Cf. the author's dissertation see note 2). Wheelock eds.), Van Dyck 350 Washington, Hanover and London, 1994), pp. 281±324, esp. p. 297. 16 See notes 10 and 11. 12 Regarding the panels, see J. Shearman, The Early Italian 17 See A. Laing, In Trust for the Nation: Paintings from National Pictures in the Collection of Her Majesty The Queen Cambridge, Trust houses London, 1995), p. 233. 1983), pp. 228±31, cat. no. 241±7. 18 The 1671 inventory of the Northumberland collection, nos. 13 For an overview see P. Tinagli, Women in Italian Renaissance 23±6, quoted in Wood, op. cit. note 11), p. 305.

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