Country Life - September 3, 1981 REVIVING A REPUTATION 1—GRINLING CIBBONS AND HIS WIFE ELIZABETH: A i691 MEZZOTINT BY JOHN SMITH AFTER IOHN CLOSTERMAN. From the exhibition “John Closterman: Master of the English Baroque”, at the National Portrait Gallery. London, until October 4 "The ultimate degradationof the Lelyesque" was Collins Baker's summary of the work of John Closterman. This summer the National Portrait Gallery is helping to salvage the artist's reputation in an exhibition (until October 4) devoted to his painting. It centres on two works by Closterman recently acquired by the Gallery, one from the sad recent sale of a large part of the contents of St. Giles's House Wimborne, the ancestral seat of the Earls of Shaftesbury. The Gallery has mounted an excellent exhibition, intimate and elegantly designed: there are some 20 objects on display, including oil paintings and drawings, with prints to represent pictures lost or unobtainable. The catalogue has been written byu the organiser of the exhibition Malcom Rogers, and provides a lucid introduction. John Closterman is one of the several late - 17th century portraitists in England whose reputation has been elipsed by Lely and Kneller. For many years he was confused with his brother, John Baptist, also an artist about whom comparatively little is known, although they are recorded as working t St. Giles's House at the same time , presumably in collaboration. Like many London artists of the period, Closterman came from abroad, being born in Osnabruck in north Germany in 1660 the son of a painter. After earlt training from his father, he moved to Paris in 1679 where he worked in the studio of Francois de Troy. He came ton England in 1681. It was common practice in the 17th and 18th centuries for the routine parts of portraits to be executed by studio assistants, and many aspiring artists began their careers as "drapery painters" This was the case with Closterman who for some time worked in partnership with John Riley, a gifted painter who dominated portraiture in England in the 1680s. The exhibition includes one work from this period: a portrait, from the royal collection. of Katherine Elliot. who acted as nurse to the future James II in 1635 and much later as Woman of the Bedchanrber to both his wives. An old inventory of the contents of Kensington Palace lists this picture as by ‘Riley. the head Closterman the drapery“. suggesting that, in this case. the contribution of the junior artist was acknowledged. Dr Rogers dates the painting between 1631 and 1683. The result of the partnership seems a little clumsy, the pale face looking as though it had been cut out and stuck to the dark background. By the mid-16805, Closterman was working independently and becoming established. Many of his early clients were drawn from the professions and the arts,and included a number of notable men. The portrait of Grinling Gibbons and his wife Elizabeth- thc carver was a friend of Closterman, whose portrait of the Proud Duke of Somerset at Petworth hangs in a Gibbons frame —is unfortunately now known only through Smith's mezzotint of 1691. (fig 1) According to Vertue this was the first piece (by Closterman) that gained much credit. Though the setting of columns and draperies and the poses are conventional, the painting shows the artist's ability to group his sitters easily, and his disinclination to idealise features is reflected in the plain, jowly faces. The portrait of Henry Purcell of around 1695, is also lost, but a drawing from life (Fig 2), previously attributed to Kneller, gives an impression of the artist's competence as a draughtsman. Other famous men represented here include John Dryden—whose long nose, hooded eyes and unsmiling face show Lely's influence —and Christopher Wren. The portrait of Wren (Fig 3), presented to the Royal Society in 1750 and still in its possession, is characteristic of the painter's earlier work: not adventurous, but dignified, informative and appropriate. Wren's fame as a mathematician is commemorated by the drawing he holds; his architectural achievement by his most famous building. The painting dates from the mid-1690s, while St Paul's wasstill being built. The parts of the Cathedral which were not complete the west end, with the towers on either side of the portico, and the dome—differ interestingly from what was eventually executed. As Closterman's reputation grew he was given increasingly elaborate portraits, and his talent as an organiser of figures into coherent groups emerged. His portrait The Children of John Taylor of Bifrons Park, Kent (Fig 4), another recent acquisition by the National Portrait Gallery, is a fine example of his abilities. The picture presents an ambitious allegory, a play on the Taylor family motto: Fama candida rosa dulcior (Fame is sweeter than a white rose). One girl distributes roses, while two of the sisters hold the wreath of fame over the head of the eldest brother, Brook, at the age of 11 when he was already celebrated as a musician (he was later to become a well-known mathematician). The artist avoids pomposity by establishing a sense of contact between spectator and sitters and shows sensitivity in conveying the relative status of the children and in the light touch with which the allegory is handled In 1698 Closterman set out on a European tour, under the patronage of two young noblemen. One of these was James Stanhope, whose father was English Resident in Madrid, and it was to Spain, then seldom visited from England, that the artist went first. The exhibition includes a striking but stiff and strange portrait of Stanhope senior (lent from the family house, Chevening) which was intended to impress the Spanish Court with Closterman's abilities. The resulting studies of the King and Queen are, unforumately, lost. From Madrid Closterman travelled to Rome, where he spent two years and aprt from his study of Italian painting gained experience for his later activities as an art-dealer. He was back in England by July 1700. The artist's second sponsor on his travels had been the brilliant young politician and philisophical writer Anthony Ashley, 3rd Earl of Shaftesbury, and it was in this nobleman that he found his most important patron on his return to England_ He executed a number of works for Sitaliestrury, of which three oil paintings are included in this display. Lady Ashe (Fig 5), the sister of one of Closterman's closest friends is painted in a grand manner new to the artist she is presented as Cecilia, patron saint of music, in an acidly-coloured version of the Bolognese style. The very picture of the Earl and his brother Maurice Ashley (fig 6) reflects the patron's interest in planniing the work. The two young men, both of them classical scholars, are depicted wearing something like Greek dress and standing in something like classical poses, in front of the Temple of Apollo. Intended as a statement of the neo-Platonic doctrine of the relationship between nature and the divine, the picture has a striking landscape background, and it is interesting that in his Second Characters Shaftesbury refers to discussions about nature with Closterman in St Giles's woods. All the same, the picture cannot be accounted a total success. Bold it may be, but it is also slightly absurd. Less is known about Closterman's later years. He achieved great prosperity— though hardly, one feels, from such works as his lumpish portrait of Queen Anne—and died in 1711. Though some of his works are recorded in country houses and public collections, others remain to be rediscovered. This exhibition should encourage further research, and the National Portrait Gallery is to be congratulated on its stylish and stimulating contribution to scholarship.