Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester (1532 - 1588)

The son of the Duke of Northumberland, who was executed for treason in 1553, Robert Dudley’s career as courtier, soldier and statesman was shaped by his closeness to Queen Elizabeth. He was the queen’s favourite from her accession to the throne until his death and a suitor for her hand in marriage.

A groundbreaking collector of paintings, Leicester commissioned works from artists including Nicholas Hilliard, Hendrick Goltzius, François Clouet, Paolo Veronese and Federico Zuccaro. This portrait demonstrates his use of Renaissance models for his own self-fashioning. For example, the pose and the dog recall Titian’s famous portrait of the Habsburg emperor Charles V, whose emblem of paired columns appears in the background.

Leicester understood the importance of visual impact. A few years after this portrait was painted an onlooker saw him:

'And then came my said Lord the Earl of Leicester by himself, appareled all in white, his shoes of velvet, his stocks of hose knit silk, his upper stocks of white velvet lined with cloth of silver, his doublet of silver, his jerkin white velvet drawn with silver, beautified with gold and precious stones […] his cap black velvet with a white feather […] a sight worthy the beholding.'

Juliet Carey, 2018

Other exhibition labels

• The son of the Duke of Northumberland, who was executed for treason in 1553, Robert Dudley’s career as courtier, soldier and statesman was shaped by his closeness to Queen Elizabeth. He was the queen’s favourite from her accession to the throne until his death and a suitor for her hand in marriage.

Dimensions (mm) / weight (mg)

1070 x 808 (sight size)

Signature & date

not signed or dated

Inscriptions

HONI . SOIT . QUI . MAL . Y . PENSE
Inscription
upper right

HONI . SOIT . QUI . MAL . Y . PENSE
Inscription
centre, around medallion of Order of the Garter

Translation of inscription

Shame to him who evil thinks

Language

Latin

Provenance

• Owned by Francis Fane, 12th Earl of Westmorland b.1825, d.1891), pre 1877; acquired by Nathaniel Mayer, 1st Baron Rothschild (b.1840, d.1915), 1877; by descent to his son Charles Rothschild (b.1877, d.1923), 1915; by descent to his son Nathaniel Mayer Victor, 3rd Baron Rothschild (b.1910, d.1990), 1923; by descent to his wife Teresa Rothschild (b.1915, d.1996), 1990; by descent to the present owner.

Exhibition history

• 'Painted Love: Renaissance Marriage Portraits', Holburne Museum, 26 May 2023 - 1 October 2023
• 'Dynasties: Painting in Tudor and Jacobean England 1530-1630', Tate Gallery, London, 12 October 1995 - 7 January 1996
• 'Elizabeth I', National Maritime Museum, London, February - 14 September 2003, curated by David Starkey
• 'The Golden Age of the English Court: from Henry VIII to Charles I' Kremlin Armoury Museum, Moscow October 2012 - January 2013
• 'Tudors, Stuarts and The Russian Tsars' The Victoria & Albert Museum, London 9 March - 14 July 2013
• 'The Real Tudors' Musee de Luxembourg, Paris 16 March - 19 July 2015
• 'Power & Portraiture: painting at the court of Elizabeth I', Waddesdon Manor 7 June – 29 October 2017
• 'Elizabeth I and Mary, Queen of Scots' British Library, London 8 October 2021 – 20 February 2022

Collection

• Waddesdon (Rothschild Family)
• On loan since 1996

Bibliography

• Roy Strong; The English Icon: Elizabethan & Jacobean portraiture; London; The Paul Mellon Centre for Studies in British Art; 1969; no. 87, ill.; as attributed to van der Meulen, c. 1565.
• Roy Strong; Tudor & Jacobean portraits; 2 vols; London; National Portrait Gallery, NPG; 1969; vol. 1 p. 195; vol. 2 pl. 379; as possibly by van der Meulen.
• Jacob Voorthuis; Portraits of Leicester; The Dutch in Crisis 1583-88: People and Politics in Leicester's Time, Leiden, Werkgroep Engels-Nederlandse Betrekkingen, Sir Thomas Browne Institute, 1988; 58-59; pp. 58-59.
• Maurice Howard; The Tudor Image; London; The Tate Gallery Publications; 1995; p. 37, ill.; as by Anglo-Netherlandish School.
• ♦; Karen Hearn; Dynasties. Painting in Tudor and Jacobean England 1530-1630; Tate Gallery, 12th October 1995-7th January 1996; Cambridgeshire; Tate Publishing; 1995; pp. 96-97, no. 49, ill; as by Anglo-Netherlandish School, c. 1564.
• Susan Doran; Elizabeth; London, National Maritime Museum, exh. cat., Elizabeth, 1 May - 14 September, 2003; London; Chatto and Windus; 2003; pp. 83-84, cat. no. 60, ill; as by Anglo-Netherlandish School.
• Anne Thackray, Elizabeth I as Empress: A Portrait Engraving in the National Gallery of Canada, National Gallery of Canada Review, vol. IV, 2003, 6-36; p. 22, fig. 10; as by Unknown artist.
• Charles Beauclerk; Shakespeare's Lost Kingdom: The true history of Shakespeare and Elizabeth; New York; Grove Atlantic; 2010; p. 238, pl. 6; [unnumbered plates].
• Renée Karen Burnam; Stained Glass before 1700 in the Collection of the Philedelphia Museum of Art; Washington, D.C.; Harvey Miller Publications; 2012; p. 264, fig. 67/2.
• ♦, ♦, ♦; Tessa Murdoch, Olga Dmitrieva; Treasures of the Royal Courts: Tudors, Stuarts and The Russian Tsars; The Victoria & Albert Museum, London (9 March - 14 July 2013); London; V & A Publishing; 2013; p. 112, pl. 131.
• Elizabeth Goldring; Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester, and the World of Elizabethan Art: Painting and Patronage at the Court of Elizabeth I; New Haven; Yale University Press; 2014; p. 52, fig. 44.
• Susan Simpson; Sir Henry Lee (1533-1611): An Elizabethan Courtier; London; Ashgate Publishing; 2014; p. 116, pl. 18.
• ♦; Monika Groening; Wer war das geheiminisvolle Fraulein von Torck? Mannheimer Geschichtsblätter Band 32; p. 13, ill.
• Hannah Carlson, ‘Közönséges dolgok James Fenimore Cooper mindent látó Keszkenője’, Disegno, IV, 2019; pp.101
• Strobl Erzsebet; I. Erzsébet – Egy mítosz születése; Budapest; L'harmattan; 2023; p. 117 fig. 11

Related files

• • J:\Paintings\British\14.1996 Dudley detail.jpg
  • J:\Paintings\British\14.1996 Detail of Dudley.JPG
  • J:\Paintings\British\14.1996 Dynasties cat entry.pdf
  • J:\Paintings\British\14.1996 NGV IR.JPG
  • J:\Paintings\British\14.1996 NGV Robert Dudley portrait.jpg
  • J:\Paintings\British\14.1996 NGV seal.jpg
  • J:\Paintings\Private collection files\14.1996 Van der Meulen PC object file.pdf
  • J:\Paintings\British\14.1996 Strong, The English Icon.pdf
  • Related portrait of Dudley by Steven van der Meulen in Yale Center for British Art collection, inventory number: B1981.25.445 ; Without pillars, dog, insignia and pouch with handkerchief., https://collections.britishart.yale.edu/catalog/tms:929
  • Head only version of portrait in National Gallery of Victoria, inventory number: 3017-4, possibly copied from larger portrait: same hat, same arrangement of hair and beard, different costume, https://www.ngv.vic.gov.au/explore/collection/work/3722/

Subject person

• Robert Dudley, 1st Earl of Leicester, Sitter
• Robert Dudley, 1st Earl of Leicester, Heraldry or Attributes

Person as Subject

• Leicester, Robert Dudley, 1st Earl of (b.1532, d.1588)

Subjects

• Figures/Male
• Portraits/Male
• Work & Occupations/Social Rank/Nobility
• Objects/Clothing & Personal Effects/Hose
• Objects/Clothing & Personal Effects/Doublet
• Animals/Mammals/Dog
• Objects/Armour & Weaponry/Sword
• Objects/Currency/Coins, Notes & Moneybags
• Objects/Clothing & Personal Effects/Handkerchief
• Heraldry/Coat of Arms
• Architecture/Architectural Features
• Objects/Furnishings/Chair or Sofa
• Work & Occupations/Maritime & Military/Knights of the Royal Orders
• Religion/Biblical Figures & Saints/Saint Michael
• Objects/Clothing & Personal Effects/Jewellery
• Objects/Clothing & Personal Effects/Gloves
• Work & Occupations/Maritime & Military/Knights of the Royal Orders

Genres

• Portraiture/Genres