Serjeant Painter
Encyclopedia
British monarchy
The monarchy of the United Kingdom is the constitutional monarchy of the United Kingdom and its overseas territories. The present monarch, Queen Elizabeth II, has reigned since 6 February 1952. She and her immediate family undertake various official, ceremonial and representational duties...
. It carried with it the prerogative of painting and gilding all of the King's residences, coaches, banners, etc. and it grossed over £ 1,000 in a good year by the 18th century. The work itself involved painting the palaces, coaches, royal barges, and all sorts of decorations for festivities, which often had to be designed as well. The actual involvement of the Serjeant Painters in this gradually declined. The post itself fell out of use in the 18th century.
History
The post of serjeant-painter came into being with the appointment of John Browne in 1511–12. In the time of Henry VIIIHenry VIII of England
Henry VIII was King of England from 21 April 1509 until his death. He was Lord, and later King, of Ireland, as well as continuing the nominal claim by the English monarchs to the Kingdom of France...
they seem to have acted as at least foremen for the actual workers; from 1527 better artists were made "King's Painter", like Lucas Horenbout
Lucas Horenbout
Lucas Horenbout, often called Hornebolte in England, was a Flemish artist who moved to England in the mid-1520s and worked there as "King's Painter" and court miniaturist to King Henry VIII from 1525 until his death...
. They may have also painted portraits. George Gower
George Gower
George Gower was an English portrait painter who became Serjeant Painter to Queen Elizabeth I in 1581.-Life:Little is known about his early life except that he was a grandson of Sir John Gower of Stettenham, Yorkshire....
was appointed by Elizabeth I
Elizabeth I of England
Elizabeth I was queen regnant of England and Ireland from 17 November 1558 until her death. Sometimes called The Virgin Queen, Gloriana, or Good Queen Bess, Elizabeth was the fifth and last monarch of the Tudor dynasty...
in 1581 and in 1603 James I
James I of England
James VI and I was King of Scots as James VI from 24 July 1567 and King of England and Ireland as James I from the union of the English and Scottish crowns on 24 March 1603...
appointed John de Critz
John de Critz
John de Critz or John Decritz was one of a number of painters of Flemish and Dutch origin active at the English royal court during the reigns of James I of England and Charles I of England...
at £40 a year (a good salary) together with another - first Leonard Fryer, and from 1610 Robert Peake the Elder
Robert Peake the Elder
Robert Peake the Elder was an English painter active in the later part of Elizabeth I's reign and for most of the reign of James I. In 1604, he was appointed picture maker to the heir to the throne, Prince Henry; and in 1607, serjeant-painter to King James I – a post he shared with John De Critz...
. Gower and De Critz were reputable artists, as was Peake, and these appointments mark a stage in the divorce of the position from the actual work involved. For Anthony van Dyck
Anthony van Dyck
Sir Anthony van Dyck was a Flemish Baroque artist who became the leading court painter in England. He is most famous for his portraits of Charles I of England and his family and court, painted with a relaxed elegance that was to be the dominant influence on English portrait-painting for the next...
the position of Principal Painter in Ordinary
Principal Painter in Ordinary
The title of Principal Painter in Ordinary to the King or Queen of England or, later, Great Britain, was awarded to a number of artists, nearly all mainly portraitists. It was different to the role of Serjeant Painter, and similar to the earlier role of "King's Painter"...
was devised, at a retainer of £200 p.a.; this continued until Queen Victoria and was nearly always given to a portraitist. By the 18th century most of the work was done by assistants. In 1720 Sir James Thornhill
James Thornhill
Sir James Thornhill was an English painter of historical subjects, in the Italian baroque tradition.-Life:...
was appointed Serjeant Painter and, in 1757, William Hogarth
William Hogarth
William Hogarth was an English painter, printmaker, pictorial satirist, social critic and editorial cartoonist who has been credited with pioneering western sequential art. His work ranged from realistic portraiture to comic strip-like series of pictures called "modern moral subjects"...
.
The last known holder was James Stewart, of whom no records are available after 1782, though it is not clear whether the post was ever actually abolished. In a patent issued on 7 May 1679 for Robert Streeter, junr., a list of previous serjeant-painters is given, including "John Decreetz & Robert Peake" as joint-holders of the post. De Critz was given the post in 1603 but is first described as sharing the office with Leonard Fryer, who had held it since 1595. Robert Peake was appointed jointly with de Critz in 1607, or 1610. A payment made to de Critz in 1633 shows that he was paid a retainer of £40 a year.
The role
The role of the serjeant painter was elastic in its definition of duties: it involved not just the painting of original portraits but of their reproductions in new versions, to be sent to other courts (King James, unlike Elizabeth, was markedly averse to sitting for his portrait) as well as copying and restoring portraits by other painters in the royal collectionRoyal Collection
The Royal Collection is the art collection of the British Royal Family. It is property of the monarch as sovereign, but is held in trust for her successors and the nation. It contains over 7,000 paintings, 40,000 watercolours and drawings, and about 150,000 old master prints, as well as historical...
, and many decorative tasks, for example scene painting and the painting of banners.
The lines of demarcation between the work of the serjeant-painters and that of other artists employed by the court sometimes needed clarification. A patent drafted in 1584, but apparently never signed, gave the serjeant-painter George Gower
George Gower
George Gower was an English portrait painter who became Serjeant Painter to Queen Elizabeth I in 1581.-Life:Little is known about his early life except that he was a grandson of Sir John Gower of Stettenham, Yorkshire....
the monopoly
Monopoly
A monopoly exists when a specific person or enterprise is the only supplier of a particular commodity...
of "all manner of portraits and pictures" of the Queen, "excepting only one Nicholas Hilliard, to whom it shall or may be lawful to exercise and make portraits, pictures, or proportions of our body and person in small compass in limning only" (Hilliard's monopoly was signed). At the time, Nicholas Hilliard
Nicholas Hilliard
Nicholas Hilliard was an English goldsmith and limner best known for his portrait miniatures of members of the courts of Elizabeth I and James I of England. He mostly painted small oval miniatures, but also some larger cabinet miniatures, up to about ten inches tall, and at least two famous...
was the leading artist in limning, the painting of portrait miniatures. This was regarded as the highest form of painting, while easel painting "in large" was still associated with interior decorating. In 1606, Hilliard seems to have trodden on the toes of the serjeant-painter John de Critz when he put himself forward to paint the tomb of Queen Elizabeth
Elizabeth I of England
Elizabeth I was queen regnant of England and Ireland from 17 November 1558 until her death. Sometimes called The Virgin Queen, Gloriana, or Good Queen Bess, Elizabeth was the fifth and last monarch of the Tudor dynasty...
, claiming that he had "skill to make more radiant colours like unto enamels than yet is to Painters known". Hilliard reports in a letter to Robert Cecil, Lord Salisbury
Robert Cecil, 1st Earl of Salisbury
Robert Cecil, 1st Earl of Salisbury, KG, PC was an English administrator and politician.-Life:He was the son of William Cecil, 1st Baron Burghley and Mildred Cooke...
, that the recently appointed De Critz had reminded him that any painting of the royal tomb was "within the Serjeant's patent".
Horace Walpole provided information about some of the tasks de Critz performed in his Anecdotes of Painting in England, which he based closely on the notes of George Vertue
George Vertue
George Vertue was an English engraver and antiquary, whose notebooks on British art of the first half of the 18th century are a valuable source for the period.-Life:...
, who had met acquaintances of de Critz and his family. In particular, Walpole quoted from a scrap of paper, a "memorandum in his own hand", on which de Critz wrote bills for jobs completed. On one side was his bill for work on a sun-dial:
For several times oyling and laying with fayre white a stone for a sun-dyall opposite to some part of the king and queen’s lodgings, the lines thereof being drawn in severall colours, the letters directing to the bowers guilded with fine gould, as alsoe the glory, and a scrowle guilded with fine gould, whereon the number and figures specifying the planetary howers are inscribed; likewise certain letters drawne in black informing in what part of the compasse the sun at any time there shining shall be resident; the whole worke being circumferenced with a frett painted in a manner of a stone one, the compleat measure of the whole being six foote.
On the other side is a demand for payment for work on the royal barge:
John De Critz demaundeth allowance for these parcells of Worke following, viz. For repayreing, refreshing, washing and varnishing the whole body of his Majesty’s privy barge, and mending with fine gould and faire colours many and divers parts thereof, as about the chaire of state, the doores, and most of the antiques about the windowes, that had bene galled and defaced, the two figures at the entrance being most new coloured and painted, the Mercury and the lion that are fixed to the sternes of this and the row barge being in several places repayred both with gould and colours, as also the taffarils on the top of the barge in many parts guilded and strowed with fayre byse. The two figures of Justice and Fortitude most an end [sic] being quite new painted and guilded. The border on the outside of the bulk being new layd with faire white and trayled over with greene according to the custom heretofore—and for baying and colouring the whole number of the oares for the row barge being thirty-six.
Walpole also noted that de Critz painted a gilded "middle piece" for a ceiling at Oaklands Palace and repaired pictures, and he quoted a wardrobe account for work on the royal carriages: "To John De Critz, serjeant-painter, for painting and gilding with good gold the body and carriages of two coaches and the carriage of one chariot and other necessaries, 179l.3s.4d. anno 1634."
Walpole said of de Critz that "His life is to be collected rather from office-books than from his works or his reputation"; and the comparative mundanity of some of the tasks he undertook has led to a downplaying of the artistic role of the serjeant-painter. Art historian William Gaunt describes de Critz's role as "mainly that of a handyman". A Burlington Magazine editorial remarked:
A great deal of easy fun has been poked at the institution of the serjeant-painters, because these had to attend to tasks such as downright house-painting, the painting of barges and coaches, the provision of banners and streamers, and so on.
William Hogarth
William Hogarth
William Hogarth was an English painter, printmaker, pictorial satirist, social critic and editorial cartoonist who has been credited with pioneering western sequential art. His work ranged from realistic portraiture to comic strip-like series of pictures called "modern moral subjects"...
, who was appointed serjeant-painter in 1757, even poked fun at the post himself, after receiving the grandiose official patent, which referred to him as "Our Trusty and wellbeloved William Hogarth Gentleman". Among other duties, including the "Office of the Revels"
Master of the Revels
The Master of the Revels was a position within the English, and later the British, royal household heading the "Revels Office" or "Office of the Revels" that originally had responsibilities for overseeing royal festivities, known as revels, and later also became responsible for stage censorship,...
, the patent covered "Our Navys and Shops Barges and Close Barges Coaches Chariots Charoches Litters Wagons and Close Carrs Tents & Pavilions Heralds Coats Trumpets Banners". Hogarth made up his own mock version:
...know ye that I for divers good causes and considerations as hereunto especial moving of our especial grace and our certain knowledge and meer motion have given and granted and by these presents to [sic] give and grant to my trusty and wellbeloved WH gentleman the office of scene painter and corporal Painter to all my whatsoever...
Hogarth succeeded his brother-in-law John Thornhill, who had fallen ill and resigned the post. Hogarth's father-in-law, Sir James Thornhill
James Thornhill
Sir James Thornhill was an English painter of historical subjects, in the Italian baroque tradition.-Life:...
, had also been serjeant-painter (he himself had succeeded Thomas Highmore through family connections). Though Hogarth's salary for the post was only £10, it was potentially lucrative: Hogarth wrote that he was now "landed as it were and secured from tugging any longer at the ore". Hogarth found himself responsible for all royal commissions for painting and gilding—anything from palace decorations to flags and boxes. After paying workmen and a deputy, he reckoned five years later that he was making £200 a year profit as serjeant-painter. However, the office, which came under the Board of Works, was not as prestigious as Hogarth would have liked. Joshua Reynolds
Joshua Reynolds
Sir Joshua Reynolds RA FRS FRSA was an influential 18th-century English painter, specialising in portraits and promoting the "Grand Style" in painting which depended on idealization of the imperfect. He was one of the founders and first President of the Royal Academy...
was employed to paint leading members of the court and able to charge much higher prices than Hogarth, as a result of direct court patronage.
List of Serjeant Painters
- John Browne, heraldic painter since 1502, appointed "King's Painter" in 1511/12, and as the first Serjeant Painter in 1527, when the imported artist Lucas HorenboutLucas HorenboutLucas Horenbout, often called Hornebolte in England, was a Flemish artist who moved to England in the mid-1520s and worked there as "King's Painter" and court miniaturist to King Henry VIII from 1525 until his death...
took over as "King's Painter" - now the superior position. Browne died in office in December 1532. - Andrew Wright
- "Antony Toto", really Antonio di Nunziato d'Antonio, a pupil of Ridolfo GhirlandajoRidolfo GhirlandajoRidolfo Ghirlandaio was an Italian painter of the Renaissance, active mainly in Florence, the son of Domenico Ghirlandaio.-Biography:...
from 1544, who died in office in 1554. He was the first Serjeant Painter who can be evidenced as an artist rather than an artisan. None of his paintings are known to survive, but his New Year gifts to Henry, presumably his own work, are documented as including a Calumny of ApellesApellesApelles of Kos was a renowned painter of ancient Greece. Pliny the Elder, to whom we owe much of our knowledge of this artist rated him superior to preceding and subsequent artists...
(1538/39) and a Story of King Alexander (1540/41). He had an Italian colleague Bartolommeo Penni, brother of the much more distinguished Luca and GianfrancescoGianfrancesco PenniGianfrancesco Penni , also known as Giovan Francesco, was an Italian painter, student of Raphael.Born in Florence to a family of weavers, Penni entered very early in Raphael's workshop, and collaborated with him for several works, including the famous Rooms of the Vatican Palace as well as the...
, RaphaelRaphaelRaffaello Sanzio da Urbino , better known simply as Raphael, was an Italian painter and architect of the High Renaissance. His work is admired for its clarity of form and ease of composition and for its visual achievement of the Neoplatonic ideal of human grandeur...
's right hand man. Both probably came to Henry from Cardinal Wolsey, as they first appear in the accounts just after Wolsey's fall in October 1529. "Toto" had been signed on in Florence in 1519 as an assistant to Pietro TorrigianoPietro TorrigianoPietro Torrigiano was an Italian sculptor of the Florentine school. According to Giorgio Vasari, he was one of the group of talented youths who studied art under the patronage of Lorenzo de' Medici in Florence....
, who in fact left England for good later that year. - Nicolas Lizard (or Lisory), a French artist, held the post from 1554 to 1571. Lizard had worked for the Office of the Revels since 1544.
- William Herne or Heron, 1572 to 1580
- George GowerGeorge GowerGeorge Gower was an English portrait painter who became Serjeant Painter to Queen Elizabeth I in 1581.-Life:Little is known about his early life except that he was a grandson of Sir John Gower of Stettenham, Yorkshire....
1581 until his death in 1596 - Leonard Fryer 1596-1607, about whom very little is known, joined by
- John de Critz the Elder from 1603 until he died in 1642 - see above, later joined by
- Robert Peake the ElderRobert Peake the ElderRobert Peake the Elder was an English painter active in the later part of Elizabeth I's reign and for most of the reign of James I. In 1604, he was appointed picture maker to the heir to the throne, Prince Henry; and in 1607, serjeant-painter to King James I – a post he shared with John De Critz...
, on Fryer's death in 1607, he had been painter to the Prince of Wales since 1610. Peake tended to paint royal portraits while De Critz supervised a large department that painted and decorated royal residences and palaces. Peake died in 1619. - John de Critz the Younger succeeded his father on his death in March 1642, having probably been doing most of the work for some years, as his father was over ninety when he died. John the Younger died in the fighting at Oxford soon after, by which stage Charles I was very short of palaces or barges to paint.
- William DobsonWilliam DobsonWilliam Dobson was a portraitist and one of the first notable English painters, praised by his contemporary John Aubrey as "the most excellent painter that England has yet bred"....
became the painter of the royal family and court during the difficult period of 1642–46, during the English Civil WarEnglish Civil WarThe English Civil War was a series of armed conflicts and political machinations between Parliamentarians and Royalists...
. It is not recorded that he was officially appointed serjeant-painter, though Horace Walpole believed that he was. According to art historian Ellis Waterhouse, the only evidence for Dobson's appointment as serjeant-painter derives from a note by the eighteenth-century antiquarian William OldysWilliam OldysWilliam Oldys was an English antiquarian and bibliographer.The illegitimate son of Dr William Oldys, chancellor of Lincoln, London was probably his place of birth. His father had held the office of advocate of the admiralty, but lost it in 1693 because he would not prosecute as traitors and...
. - Robert StreaterRobert StreaterRobert Streater , was an English landscape, history, still-life and portrait artist, architectural painter, and etcher...
or Streeter was appointed in 1660 at the English RestorationEnglish RestorationThe Restoration of the English monarchy began in 1660 when the English, Scottish and Irish monarchies were all restored under Charles II after the Interregnum that followed the Wars of the Three Kingdoms...
. He was essentially a topographical or landscape painter. Samuel PepysSamuel PepysSamuel Pepys FRS, MP, JP, was an English naval administrator and Member of Parliament who is now most famous for the diary he kept for a decade while still a relatively young man...
noted him as "a very civil little man and lame but lives very handsomely". He painted the ceiling of the Sheldonian TheatreSheldonian TheatreThe Sheldonian Theatre, located in Oxford, England, was built from 1664 to 1668 after a design by Christopher Wren for the University of Oxford. The building is named after Gilbert Sheldon, chancellor of the university at the time and the project's main financial backer...
, Oxford. He died in 1679. - Robert Streeter, junr., son of the above.
- Thomas Highmore, to 1720. Appointed serjeant-painter to William IIIWilliam III of EnglandWilliam III & II was a sovereign Prince of Orange of the House of Orange-Nassau by birth. From 1672 he governed as Stadtholder William III of Orange over Holland, Zeeland, Utrecht, Guelders, and Overijssel of the Dutch Republic. From 1689 he reigned as William III over England and Ireland...
. Uncle of the painter Joseph HighmoreJoseph HighmoreJoseph Highmore was an English portrait and historical painter, illustrator and author.-Life:Highmore was born in London, the third son of Edward Highmore, a coal merchant, and nephew of Thomas Highmore, Serjeant Painter to William III. He displayed early ability but was discouraged by his family...
. - Sir James ThornhillJames ThornhillSir James Thornhill was an English painter of historical subjects, in the Italian baroque tradition.-Life:...
, pupil of Thomas Highmore, from 1720; he was knighted the same year, and two years later became a Member of ParliamentMember of ParliamentA Member of Parliament is a representative of the voters to a :parliament. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, the term applies specifically to members of the lower house, as upper houses often have a different title, such as senate, and thus also have different titles for its members,...
. He died in 1734. - John Thornhill, son of Sir James, until shortly before his death in 1757.
- William HogarthWilliam HogarthWilliam Hogarth was an English painter, printmaker, pictorial satirist, social critic and editorial cartoonist who has been credited with pioneering western sequential art. His work ranged from realistic portraiture to comic strip-like series of pictures called "modern moral subjects"...
, brother-in-law of John Thornhill and son-in-law to Sir JamesJames ThornhillSir James Thornhill was an English painter of historical subjects, in the Italian baroque tradition.-Life:...
, from 1757 until his death in 1764. - Benjamin Wilson, succeeded William Hogarth upon his death in 1764.Dictionary of National Biography 1900, page 83
- James Stewart to 1782 or perhaps later, the last appointment.