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Description: | Pieter van der Faes, called Lely (1618-1680) trained with Frans Pietersz. de Grebber at Haarlem before moving to London in 1641/3. In 1647 he became a 'freeman' of the Painter-Stainers' company on the same day as his friend the poet Richard Lovelace. The leading court portrait painter of his generation, Lely was appointed Principal Painter to the King in 1661. He was naturalised the following year and knighted the year of his death. An important collector of paintings, drawings and prints his collections were dispersed after 1680. This portrait, attributed to Pieter Lely is a late work from the artist's production. It shows Thomas Webster (1676-1751), the son of Godfrey Webster and Abigail Jordan, as a young boy in the guise of a mythological hunter. He wears classicising dress and carries a spear and is accompanied by a hound on a leash with a heart at its collar. Thomas Webster was to become the most successful member of his family: in 1697 he entered the Middle Temple and in 1703 secured a baronetcy in return for contributing financially towards a garrison in Ulster. He succeeded his father as master of the Clothworkers guild in 1704, and from 1711 with the confidence of the Treasury he gained a lucrative contract to supply hemp to the navy. In 1718 he entered politics as the Whig MP for Colchester; following major property purchasing campaigns in the West End of London he expanded into east Sussex beginning in 1721 with the purchase of Battle Abbey which became the family seat; he held significant shares in the waterworks of York, inherited from his wife, and in the iron industry of Beech Furnace in Battle and Etchingham Forge - his own investments; by 1744 the estate at Battle alone produced £4000 per year. | Subjects: | portrait (Thomas Webster) | Source: | Vads | Creator: | Artist: Lely, Peter (Dutch painter and draftsman, 1618-1680, active in England) Æ Attributed to | Identifier: | http://www.vads.ac.uk/large.php?uid=8735... | Go to resource |
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