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Creator:
William Larkin, born in London, England, ca. 1580; active in England; died in London, England, 1619
Title:
William Pope, first Earl of Downe [2024, YCBA]
Former Title(s):

Portrait of an Unknown Man [2015, YCBA]

Grey Brydges, fifth Baron Chandos, of Sudeley Castle, Gloucestershire

Grey Brydges, 5th Baron Chandos, of Sudeley Castle, Gloucestershire

Grey Brydges, 5th Baron Chandos of Sudeley (before 1581-1621), c.1615

A Nobleman attributed to William Larkin
Date:
ca. 1615
Materials & Techniques:
Oil on panel
Dimensions:
23 x 17 1/2 inches (58.4 x 44.5 cm)
Credit Line:
Yale Center for British Art, Paul Mellon Collection
Copyright Status:
Public Domain
Accession Number:
B1981.25.403
Classification:
Paintings
Collection:
Paintings and Sculpture
Link to Frame:
B1981.25.403FR
Subject Terms:
beard | costume | Jacobean | lace | man | oval | portrait | ruff | trompe-l'oeil
Associated People:
Pope, Sir William, 1st Earl of Downe (1573–1631), landowner
Access:
On view
Link:
https://collections.britishart.yale.edu/catalog/tms:888
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Larkin portrays these men in the mirrored poses typically reserved for a husband and wife, capturing the intensity of male friendship in seventeenth-century England. The oval frames recall those of the portrait miniatures commonly exchanged as gifts between intimates. The men are similarly dressed: both wear high-necked silk doublets and standing linen collars, the impressive spans of which were achieved through heavy starching and the use of the supports that can be seen beneath the lace. Pope, on the left, was both Brydges’s neighbor and his nephew by marriage. Often participating in performances at court, Brydges was the archetypal Jacobean courtier, spending prodigious sums to maintain his household at Sudeley Castle, which was open for his neighbors to enjoy three days a week.

Gallery label for installation of YCBA collection, 2025


William Larkin was the most fashionable painter at the court of James I by the mid-1610s. The son of a London baker, Larkin grew up in the parish of St. Sepulchre without Newgate, an area popular among artists and other artisans. By 1612 he had established a workshop in the parish of St. Anne Blackfriars, near the banks of the river Thames. The identity of this sitter is not known, but to judge from Larkin’s other patrons he must have been an important figure within the Jacobean court. It is also likely that this individual was a friend or relation of Gray Brydges, fifth Baron Chandos, whose companion portrait hangs nearby.

Gallery label for installation of YCBA collection, 2016

In a New Light: 500 Years of British Art (Yale Center for British Art, 2025-04-01 - 2026-01-30) [YCBA Objects in the Exhibition] [Exhibition Description]

British Art at Yale, Apollo, vol.105, April 1977, pp. 239-240, fig. 4, N1 .A54 + OVERSIZE (YCBA) [YCBA]

Malcolm Cormack, Concise Catalogue of Paintings in the Yale Center for British Art, Yale Center for British Art, New Haven, CT, 1985, pp. 140-141, N590.2 .A83 (YCBA) [YCBA]

Roy C. Strong, The English icon : Elizabethan & Jacobean portraiture, , Paul Mellon Foundation for British Art, London New York, 1969, p. 327, no. 349, ND1314 S77 + (YCBA) [YCBA]

Ian Tyers, The tree-ring analysis of 23 panel paintings from the Yale Center for British Art , New Haven : dendrochronological consultancy report 470, , Yale Center for British Art, New Haven, 2011, p. 78, fig. 46, CC78.3 .T94 2011 (YCBA) [YCBA]

Ellis Waterhouse, An Impressive Panorama of British Portraiture, Apollo, v. 105, no. 182, April 1977, pp. 239-40, fig. 4, N1 A54 + (YCBA) Another copy of this article may be found in a separately bound and catalogued copy of this issue located on the Mellon Shelf [call number : N5220 M552 A7 1977 + (YCBA)] [YCBA]


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