Circle of Sir Peter Lely, English 1618-1680- Portrait of John Noel, Son of Viscount Campden, standing three-quarter length, wearing a red silk cloak, in a landscape; oil on canvas, inscribed 'John Noel Son of / Viscount Campden. / P. Lilley. pinxt'...

Circle of Sir Peter Lely,

English 1618-1680-

Portrait of John Noel, Son of Viscount Campden, standing three-quarter length, wearing a red silk cloak, in a landscape;

oil on canvas, inscribed 'John Noel Son of / Viscount Campden. / P. Lilley. pinxt' (lower left), 126.8 x 103 cm.

Provenance: Private Collection, UK.

Note: John Noel (1659-1718) of North Luffenham, Rutland, was the 7th son of Baptist Noel, 3rd Viscount Campden, and his fourth wife Lady Elizabeth Bertie, daughter of Montague Bertie, 2nd Earl of Lindsey. In the summer of 1687, he had a violent quarrel at a horse-race meeting with Bennet Sherard, 2nd Baron Sherard, which, in time, was smoothed after Lord Sunderland, Secretary of State, implored the Lord Lieutenant of Leicestershire to help them settle their differences. In fact, Sherard was to become Noel’s father-in-law when his daughter Elizabeth, Lady Irvine married Noel in 1696. The couple bore two children, Bridget and Thomas.

Noel was one of several noblemen to have a Doctorate of Laws conferred on him at Cambridge University in the presence of Queen Anne, in 1705. Later that year, he was invited to join the newly re-opened Honourable Order of Little Bedlam – a gentlemen's drinking and dining club, founded in 1684 by John Cecil, 5th Earl of Exeter of Burghley House – and adopted the nickname ‘Wildhorse’ to comply with the rules of membership. At the 1710 election, Noel was elected Member of Parliament for Rutland, standing as a Whig. He was shortly unseated by the Tory Richard Halford, and subsequently returned unopposed in 1715 as a Whig, voting for the septennial bill in 1716, until his death three years later.

In the present work, the anonymous artist is looking closely at the contemporary portraits being produced by Lely, especially in the later stages of his career. Lely’s increasingly flamboyantly bold approach is echoed here, particularly in the formalised, almost schematic, drapery and the confident rendering of light and shade on its folds. The sensitively conceived face of the sitter is furthermore highly reminiscent of portraits by Lely, and the setting of the autumnal landscape recalls the artist’s earlier English works which themselves exhibit the influences of Anthony van Dyck and the Dutch Baroque. Here, the sitter is portrayed in his finest dress of a red silk cloak covering his clothes, revealing long full white sleeves, and a large lace cravat.

Peter Lely himself painted Noel’s sister in law, Lady Elizabeth Wriothesley, the wife of his brother Edward Noel, 1st Earl of Gainsborough. The three-quarter-length portrait was conceived in 1660-5 and is today held by the National Trust at Petworth House [NT 486278]. The present work was likely painted in the late 1670s.
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