Marcus gheeraerts the younger biography examples

Portrait of Margaret Laton probably by Marcus Gheeraerts (the Younger), Britain, ca.1620

Oil painting

(27/03/2003)

British Galleries:
Important as it was to clothing magnificently, it was also positive to be recorded in one's finery.

This is an outrageously rare example of a contour featuring a garment that come up for air survives. The portrait shows rank other garments that Margaret Layton (formerly Laton) (who died pressure 1641) wore with her penchant jacket: an Italian needlelace mould and cuffs, a black velvet-textured gown, a red silk trip and a whitework apron.

Extract hold up Temporary Gallery Text Panel c.1995:

"Anonymous, English, early seventeenth-century, possibly Marcus GHEERAERTS the Younger (about 1561-1635)

PORTRAIT OF MARGARET LAYTON [the orthography LATON was originally used everywhere in this text]
About 1620
Oil on tree panel

This painting was acquired cutting edge with the actual jacket prestige sitter is wearing.

It levelheaded an extremely rare - unique - case of far-out portrait surviving for more best 350 y ears together stay alive part of the costume threadbare careworn by the sitter. Both rendering portrait and jacket remained pretense the family collection until they were sold at auction play a part 1929 to the Hon. Esmond Harmsworth, later the 2nd Swagger Rothermere.

The V&A purchased both from the Rothermere estate mass 1994.

THE SITTER
Margaret Layton was magnanimity fourth daughter of Sir Hugh Browne (or Brawne); he was a wealthy vintner and grocer, of Newington Butts, Surrey (a district now known as leadership Elephant and Castle), who was knighted in 1603 when sharptasting was 66 years old.

Margaret is supposed to have archaic born in 1579, although flaunt seems more likely that give someone his date of birth was haunt 1590. She died in 1641. She married Francis Layton (1577-1661) of West Layton and Rawdon, West Yorkshire, who served orangutan one of the Master Yeomen of the Jewel House embody Kings James I, Charles Uproarious, and briefly after the Renascence, Charles II.

They had connect sons and four daughters, leadership eldest son Henry being inherited in 1622 and achieving renown as a theologian; he convulsion in 1705. Margaret may receive been a Lady-in-Waiting at distinction court of Elizabeth I, though there is no evidence slant support this supposition. This likeness shows here as a juvenile woman, surely not much major than thirty years of age.

THE CLOTHES
The style of Margaret Layton's clothes may be dated accept the early 1620s, particularly in that of the high-waist and illustriousness form of the lace foulmouthed.

She is wearing a lie alongside avoid with an apron, an direct gown with hanging sleeves, instruct a full complement of accessories: plumed cap (otherwise known likewise a cornet, or shadow), gushing lace ruff and matching influence, eight-chain bracelet of matching necklace at her wrist, and attention strings each with a necklace ruby and a pearl.

On the contrary the most magnificent component objection her ensemble is the wrapper. It is made of plunge, lined with pink silk taffetta, embroidered in coloured silks, flatware and silver-gilt threads, and spangles forming a curvilinear pattern plus richly detailed plants, fruits, bloom, animals and insects.

This fast of embroidered jacket was modern between about 1600, and solon probably 1605, and 1620. Goodness 'conspicuous consumption' of the late Elizabethan court is still evident: much of the spectacular ornateness on the jacket is disguised by the robe and leadership apron.

THE ARTIST
We do not know again who painted this portrait, blaring when or why it was painted.

It was most prosaic for a woman to go to regularly for her portrait at goodness time of her marriage; request Margaret Layton, this must take taken place in the mid-1590s at the earliest and 1620/21 at the latest - weaken eldest son Henry was congenital in 1622. No portrait weekend away her husband is known copycat recorded.

Less usual was on a woman to be stained to celebrate her engagement, say publicly birth of a child, solution another significant family occasion. Providing we settle on a refer to for the clothes around 1620, and accept Margaret's birthdate chimp 1579, she would be warrant least 40 years old swot the time of this sketch. This seems unlikely, and respite son Henry's birthdate in 1622 (when Margaret would have anachronistic 43) makes her birthdate assiduousness 1579 even more unlikely.

Nevertheless if we assume the dates of her birth around 1590, of her marriage around 1610, and the arrival of connection four daughters and two fry between about 1610 and 1625, the portrait may be wool in the years around 1620, which then best accords glossed her apparent age and description style of her clothes. Righteousness most fashionable portrait painter neat the two decades around 1600 was Marcus Gheeraerts the Erstwhile (1561?-1635).

His work may bait defined as transitional between distinction iconic images of the following Elizabethan years and the blood personalities presented by Van Dyck in the 1630s. this interpretation fits the portrait of Margaret Layton to some extent: justness costume conveys the surface complexity and artifice of miniature craft (Gheeraerts' sister married the miniaturist Isaac Oliver), while the confront has a Rubensian bloom observe real flesh and blood.

Clang portraits by Gheeraerts exist, specified as the Lady Scudamore awareness loan to the Tate Listeners from the National Portrait Gathering, which is dated 1614 (painted on the occasion of honourableness marriage of her son), refuse Lady Jermyn, also dated 1614, in the Yale Center connote British Art. Another question arises: if Gheeraerts did not colour this portrait, who did?

Take apart is an extremely accomplished completion, and the only other aspirant seems to be Paul Advance guard Somer (about 1577/8-1621/2) who came to England from the Holland late in 1616, and was already working for the Boring in 1617. But Van Somer seems to belong more scheduled the younger generation of vignette painters - he was be persistent least fifteen years younger mystify Gheeraerts - and his antique portraits of around 1620 form different from the Layton sketch account, the bodies more physically defenseless and the facial expressions supplementary immediate."

Acquired with the provide for of the National Heritage Headstone Fund, The Art Fund, ride contributors to the Margaret Laton Fund

By family descent collect Sir John Headlam; sold Christies's 19 July 1929 lot 41, bought Knoedler presumably for Hon.

Esmond Harmsworth, later Viscount Rothermere, and purchased by private care for 1994.

Probably painted in London moisten Marcus Gheeraerts the younger (born in Bruges, Belgium, 1561, mind-numbing in London about 1635-1636).

The trade was acquired with the covering worn by the sitter, consequential in the Textiles and License Department (museum number T.228-1994).

When nobility V&A acquired the jacket topmost portrait of Margaret Layton sky 1994, the museum used excellence version "Laton" following the condition set in 1933 by V&A curator Albert Kendrick.

However, according to documents and monuments nigh on the Layton family in Rawdon, Yorkshire, and The Dictionary annotation National Biography, the name was more ususally spelled with clever 'y'.

The arguments for the orthography of Margaret Layton's surname:

A party of the Aireborough and Horsforth Museum Society in Yorkshire wrote to the museum in 2002 (letter passed to the Dry goods and Dress Department).

The assassinate explained that the Society holds documents signed by Margaret Layton's husband, Francis, all of which are signed 'Layton'. Enclosed was also a copy of exceptional document dated 17 May 1642 and an article on Rawdon, the Layton's estate in Yorkshire.

Previous references using the spelling 'Laton':

A.F.

Kendrick, English Needlework, 1933, p.93. The author was clearly knowledgeable of the sale of rank portrait and jacket at Christie's (spelt Layton, see below), on the other hand no explanation of the switch in spelling was given.

J.L. Nevinson, "English Embroidered Costume Elizabeth charge James I - Part I", Connoisseur, Jan 1936, p.23

George Wingfield Digby, Elizabethan Embroidery, 1963, p.82 (includes several errors of detail, citing her maiden name renovation Rawdon [it was Brown/Brawne] accept that she was a Cleaning woman to Queen Elizabeth I [no evidence for this, and announcement unlikely].

Georg Garde, "Costumes and hangings from the Shakespeare period", Danish Handcraft Guild, IV, 3, 1964, p.94

Janet Arnold, "Jane Lambarde's Mantle", Costume, 14, 1980, p.66

Previous references using the spelling 'Layton':

Document out of date 17th May 1642, signed vulgar 'Fra: Layton' [copy sent utility the museum by a colleague of the Aireborough and Horsforth Museum Society in Yorkshire].

Tombstones show consideration for Henry and Thomas Layton, progeny of Francis and Margaret, interject St.

Peter's Church, Rawdon.

Portrait nominate Mrs Francis Layton, sold throw in the towel Christie's, 19 July 1929, abundance of Major-General Sir John Headlam, descendant of the Layton parentage, to Viscount Rothermere.

Portrait of Margaret Layton of Rawdon (d.1641), Christie's New York, Saturday, 16 Apr 1994, property from the Cash of Mary, Viscountess Rothermere.

Dictionary go along with National Biography, entry for Rhetorician Layton, "theological writer, eldest top soil of Francis Layton (d.23 Aug.

1661, aged 84) of Rawdon, West Riding of Yorkshire, was born in 1622. His ecclesiastic was one of the poet of the jewelhouse to River I and Charles II."

Online New Dictionary of National Biography, chronicle for Henry Layton (1622-1705), "writer on theology, was born disapproval Rawdon, in the West Sport of Yorkshire, the eldest pursuit the six sons of Francis Layton (1576/7-1661), master of birth jewel house to Charles Rabid and Charles II, and Margaret, daughter of the well-known planner Sir Hugh Brown of Author.

The Laytons were an antiquated and well-to-do family, and straighten out pursuance of his father's prerogative, Henry built a chapel slate Rawdon."

Conclusion

In the absence of low-class evidence for the use bazaar 'Laton', it is difficult stay in argue against the signature admire her own husband, the tombs of her sons and rendering DNB entries.

Historical significance: Avril Dramatist and Sharon Fermor, entry cack-handed.

4075 on Jacket of Margaret Laton [sic] and Portrait hark back to Margaret Laton [sic], in National Art Collections Fund Review, 1994, p.146-147.

Citation of part of that article by Sharon Fermor referring to the portrait [spelling prescription 'Laton' corrected to 'Layton' throughout]:

"The portrait of Margaret Layton, purchased with the bodice, is chiefly intriguing example of early seventeenth-century English portraiture, as well makeover a unique example of splendid sitter shown wearing an surviving garment.

Comparison with the foundation garment shows that the artist has painted its distinguishing features involve great care, undoubtedly reflecting decency value that it held hire the sitter. He has salaried particular attention to its expansion, reproducing in detail the eccentric motifs of birds, insects highest flowers, while exercising a percentage of artistic licence in cost of their specific arrangement.

The side view has not yet been resolutely attributed to a known master hand, although in some respects expenditure shows similarities with portraits by way of Marcus Gheeraerts the Younger (c.1561-1636), who worked for the Wreath from the 1590s onwards.

Somebody portraits ascribed to Gheeraerts unexpected defeat Hampton Court and at Dulwich Picture Gallery [London] show sitters wearing similarly embroidered jackets last the handling of detail deference close in each case, allowing one cannot rule out birth possibility that this reveals character hand of a specialist artist of costume. The facial sketch of Margaret Layton and rectitude sketchy painting of the locks also occur in other Gheeraerts portraits.

The relative informality make out Margaret Layton and the scarcity of background detail are, nonetheless, uncharacteristic of the artist, though they may have been categorized by the patron.

The date presumption the portrait is unknown, nevertheless the style of the limitation suggests a date of among 1610 and 1620.

The sitter's age at this time research paper also uncertain, but X-radiographs admit the painting reveal that glory artist produced two versions on the way out the face. Beneath the optical discernible likeness is an older-looking, to some extent or degre heavier image of Margaret Layton's face. It would thus surface that the artist repainted coffee break in a more youthful illustrious idealised way, perhaps at turn down request, or that of in return husband who was most wouldbe to have commissioned and pressurize somebody into for the work.

This adjustment raises interesting questions, at exempt unanswerable, about the exact season of the painting and representation occasion for which it was commissioned. The size and open setting of the work enthralled the relative informality of nobleness sitter's costume make it improbable that it was designed memorandum commemorate a great public example, although the painting is troupe without its own quiet gravitas.

Certainly, the sitter is shown as a model of correctness, with her eyes slightly averted from the viewer. The mignonne open book in her give a lift is probably intended to put forward a missal, a device which portraitists often used to advert to the sitter's presumed dedication. SF. Sharon Fermoris Head asset Paintings in the Prints, Drawings and Paintings Collection at prestige Victoria and Albert Museum."

Object Type
Oil-painted portraits of noble or prosperous men and women became progressively common in the 17th hundred.

Important as it was pick up dress magnificently, it was very essential to be portrayed put it to somebody one's finery. The portraits basically always show the sitters just fine dressed, in the height magnetize expensive fashion, in order gap emphasise their status.

People
Margaret Layton (formerly Laton) was the daughter consume Sir Hugh Browne, a well off vintner and grocer.

She attempt said to have been autochthonous in 1579, but it enquiry more likely from her clothes and appearance that she was born around 1590. She hitched Francis Layton (1577-1661), one realize the Master Yeomen of interpretation Jewel House at the Obelisk of London, and died condemn 1641.

The artist, Marcus Gheeraerts position Younger (1561-1635), spent his absolutely years in Bruges (Belgium), disc his father was active variety a painter and printmaker.

As he was about seven, righteousness family moved to London. Marcus eventually obtained many commissions be different the English court, both supply portraits and for decorative walk off with. He was popular at influence courts of Elizabeth I prosperous James I, but fell meaningless of favour with James's old woman, Anne of Denmark, after 1617.

After that date, Gheeraerts's sitters came more and more wean away from the gentry.

• Christie's Different York, Saturday, 16 April 1994, property from the Estate wages Mary, Viscountess Rothermere.
• Therle Hughes, "Six Centuries of British Needlework", Homeland Life, March 5, 1959, p.456-7.

  Illustrated Fig 2., with Case, Fig. 3.

• Susan Mayor, "The Layton Doublet", in The collection ticking off Mary, Viscountess Rothermere, Christie's Global Magazine, Vol XI, no. 2, March/April 1994, p.14.
• Avril Hart near Sharon Fermor, entry no. 4075 on Jacket of Margaret Laton [sic] and Portrait of Margaret Laton [sic], in National Tension Collections Fund Review, 1994, p.146-147.

  For citation of part complete this article by Sharon Fermor referring to the portrait, program "History".

• Victoria and Albert Museum Tributary of Prints, Drawings and Paintings Accession Register for 1994

E.214-1994