LELY, Sir PETER (1618–1680), portrait-painter, born on 14 Sept. 1618, was son of Johan van der Faes, alias Lely, a captain of foot in the service of the States General, and Abigail van Vliet, who belonged to a good family of Utrecht. His father's family resided at the Hague, and his father was born in a house which bore a lily for its sign; hence the additional name of Lely, by which alias the father was known, and by which name alone his son Peter was known in England. It is usually stated that the painter was born in Soest in Westphalia. His father, who latterly served under the elector of Brunswick, was quartered in garrison there, but it seems more probable that he was born in the village of Soest by Amersfoort, and near Utrecht, his mother's home. The former story is traceable to the authority of Arnold Houbraken, who himself advances it as a conjecture (see Grosse Schouburgh der Niederländischen Maler und Malerinnen, ed. Würzbach, 1880). Vollenhove, a native of Zwolle in Holland, celebrates Lely in song as his compatriot. S. van Hoogstraaten speaks of him as our ‘Geldersche Lily’ (Inleiding tot de Hoogeschool der Schilderkunst). Under the designation of ‘Pieter van der Faes, alias Lely, at present in England,’ he was a party to a family deed on 4 Dec. 1679 (preserved in the notarial records at the Hague), and he left legacies in his will to the son of his sister Catharina, who married Conrad Wecke, burgomaster of Groll in Guelderland.
Lely when young showed more aptitude for painting than for a military life. His father accordingly sent him to Haarlem, as pupil to Franz Pietersz de Grebber, a painter of great merit in that town. From a payment in the accounts of the guild of St. Luke at Haarlem we learn that Lely was working under De Grebber in 1637 (Van de Willingen, Artistes de Haarlem). De Grebber painted some of the great portrait groups now in the Haarlem Museum, and by the time Lely arrived at Haarlem Frans Hals had completed his finest work in that branch of art in the same place. Though Lely could hardly help being impressed by these masterpieces, his style does not appear at any time to have been influenced by them. He made great advances in his own manner, and gained a reputation, according to Houbraken, even among the many excellent portrait-painters then at work in Haarlem.
In April 1641 Lely came over to England in the train of William, prince of Orange, who on 2 May was married to Mary, the daughter of Charles I. Portraits which Lely painted of the young couple were widely appreciated. They are now in the possession of the Earl of Crawford and Balcarres (Stuart Exhibition, 1889, Nos. 95, 100). Lely appears to have modelled his earlier style in England on that rendered fashionable by Vandyck, who died in December 1641, and his study and admiration of Vandyck doubtless produced in his earlier work a restraint and sobriety which is wanting in that of his later and more successful years. In August 1647 Charles I was confined as a captive in Hampton Court, and during his captivity Lely was introduced to him by the Earl of Northumberland. Lely then painted the striking portrait of the king receiving a note from the hands of the youthful Duke of York (ib. No. 76). This picture, on which Lovelace wrote a poem, is now at Sion House, Isleworth, in the possession of the Duke of Northumberland, who also possesses Lely's receipt for 30l. in payment for the picture.
During the Commonwealth Lely continued to enjoy considerable private practice. He painted Cromwell, as Vertue records on the authority of Captain Winde the architect [see under Cromwell, Oliver]: a portrait of Cromwell, aged 51, by Lely, is now in the Pitti gallery at Florence.
On the Restoration Lely was at once advanced to high favour by Charles II, who gave him a pension, and kept him continually employed. From this time to his death Lely's career was one of increasing success and prosperity. The royal family, the royal mistresses and their children, ministers of state, generals, dukes and duchesses, and all the nobility and gentry of England competed for the honour of sitting to him. The king frequently visited his studio, and treated him familiarly as a personal friend. He was diligent and regular in his hours of painting, and painted from nine in the morning to four in the afternoon. A list of sitters was strictly kept, and no consideration was paid to any sitter of whatever rank who lost his turn by unpunctuality or default. After his painting hours he usually entertained a large company at dinner. Samuel Pepys, in his diary, gives some lifelike descriptions of Lely's establishment. On 18 June 1662 he writes: ‘I walked to Lilly, the painter's, where I saw, among other rare things, the Duchesse of York, her whole body, sitting in state in a chair, in white satin, and another of the king's, that is not finished; most rare things. I did give the fellow something that showed us, and promised to come another time, and he would show me Lady Castlemaine's, which I could not then see, it being locked up. Thence to Wright's, the
