COUNTRY L1FE—SEPTEMBE.R 3, 1981
REVIVING A REPUTATION
IOHN CLOSTERMAN
The ultimate degradation of the "Lelyesque" was Colin Baker's 
 sunmary of the work |
of john Clostcrman. This 
summer the National Portrait
Gallery is helping to salvage
he artist’s reputation 111 an
a
the Gallerv, one from the
the contents of St Giies’s
horuse, Wirnborne, the ancestral seat of the Earls of Shaftesburyan excellent ex-
Malcolm Rogers, and p:ovicles
lucid intro uction.
rtraitists in England whose

HE ultimate degracla~ ‘
n (until October 4]
to his painting. lt
on two works by
n recently acquired
recent sale ofa large art
seat or the Earls of
The Csallery has
m, intiznate and
y designed: there are
20 objects on display,
oil paintings and
witn prints to
ictures lost or
The catalogue
n writtez". bi.-' the
of the exhibition,
john C-lOSE€I'IT_EI1 is one
Several late-17th-ceiitury
itations have beer. eclipsed
Lely and Kneller. For
years he was cozifiised
his brother, john Baptist,
an artist, about W on1
little is known,
they are recorded as
at St Gilesls House
me tune, presuroablt
EXHIBITION AT THE N.P.G. By GILES WATERFIELD
the sa . ' ‘__ ' 7'
colltllloration Like :11a_i"-i‘ 1—CR1i\lLli\‘C GIBBONS AND HIS WPIITE El_1lZABE'['H: A 1691 l\1EZZQTIl\lT BY JOHN Sl\rHT].'i
being bor ___
a painter. After early ttairifig from 'r.i
rnoved to Paris in '16T9. -.1-':ere he
nu.
_ ‘.0
_--;-. 
2—HEi\RY PL_RCEI.L A cleaving‘ frrarn
life, which was previousl}' attributeci
(Left) 3——-—SIR Cl‘lRISTOPH_ER WHEN.
This portrait was presented to the Royal
..  . 2..-a--11- ‘PEI! .
sterinan carne :1'C""‘ at the National Portrait Gallon , London, until Ur tober 4
snabruck 111 north Gernzanv :21  ':.e ~'~on It was common practice in the 17th and who for some tune worked in partnership with
s :';.:'"e=' idth centuries for the routine parts of portraits john Riley, a gifted painter who dorninated
Imtlon artists of the period, .-\_F'I'ER JOHN CLOSTERMAN. From the eith.i.bitioi1 John C1ostel"_mar1_: Master of the 17111515311 Btu-oque ,
_ ,1 rited in :0 he executed by studio assistants, and many portraiture in England during the 16805. [ht
studio of Francois de Trey. He cazne :-2 aspiziza artists began their career as “drapery exhibition includes one work from this period"
Ill . “-5  i"'=.1'" 1.. " ,. , ', ' " , DI
1111681 ;.a.n:e's Tiis ast'1=casex~1thClosternian a portrait from the royal collection
Katherine Elliot, who acted a:
nurse to the future James ll in 1635
and much later as Woinan of tl1=
Bedchamber to both his wives
An old inventory of the content
of Kensington Palace lists thi
picture as by “Riley the head
Closterman the drapery”, suggest
ing that, -in this case, th
contribution of the junior artis
was acknowledged. Dr Roger
dates the painting between 1.68
and ‘I683. The result of tl".
partnership seems a little clull1s;.
the pale face looking as though
had been cut out and stuck to tl
dark back round.
By the mid—1680s, Closte:
man was working indepel1clent'
and beconiing established. Mar
of his early clients were d1'.'3'\‘\
from the -.-ofessions and the art
and in-cludjed a number ofnotal:
:ne:1. The portrait ot' Grinlit
C-i':':ons and his wife Elizabeth-
the car‘-"er was a friend
C‘.os:e:::-.27.. '-rh-ose go;-Jait oft
P:-3";-5 Dzize of Somerset
Perwcrtii hangs i:-1 a Gibbons frar
—is 1ll1fOI‘tL1l1?1T.f.‘lY now knot
only through Smith's rnezzotint
1691- (Pig 1). According to Vert
this was the “first piece [
Closterrnan] that ained nit
credit". Thou h the setting