Paul van Somer I
Encyclopedia
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...
and became one of the leading painters of the royal court. He painted a number of portraits both of James and his consort, Queen Anne of Denmark
Anne of Denmark
Anne of Denmark was queen consort of Scotland, England, and Ireland as the wife of King James VI and I.The second daughter of King Frederick II of Denmark, Anne married James in 1589 at the age of fourteen and bore him three children who survived infancy, including the future Charles I...
, and of nobles such as Ludovic Stuart, earl of Lennox
Ludovic Stewart, 2nd Duke of Lennox
Ludovic Stewart, 2nd Duke of Lennox and 1st Duke of Richmond was a Scottish nobleman and politician. He was the son of Esmé Stewart, 1st Duke of Lennox and his wife Catherine de Balsac. Stewart was involved in the Plantation of Ulster in Ireland and the colonization of Maine in New England...
, Elizabeth Stanley, Countess of Huntingdon
Lady Elizabeth Stanley
Elizabeth Stanley, Countess of Huntingdon was an English noblewoman and writer who was third in line of succession to the English throne. She was the wife of Henry Hastings, 5th Earl of Huntingdon...
, and Lady Anne Clifford
Lady Anne Clifford
Lady Anne Clifford, 14th Baroness de Clifford was the only surviving child of George Clifford, 3rd Earl of Cumberland by his wife Lady Margaret Russell, daughter of Francis Russell, 2nd Earl of Bedford...
. He is sometimes designated as "Paul van Somer I" to distinguish him from the engraver of the same name who was active in England between 1670 and 1694.
Paul van Somer is in some ways an elusive figure: not much is known about him, and his art is rarely written about;. According to Karel van Mander he was the brother of Barend van Someren
Barend van Someren
Barend van Someren , was a Dutch Golden Age painter.-Biography:According to Karel van Mander, he married and brought back the daughter of Aert Mijtens after he returned from Italy. He was a good painter who arranged his subjects well...
, who married and brought back the daughter of Aert Mijtens
Aert Mijtens
Aert Mijtens , was a Flemish Renaissance painter.-Biography:According to Karel van Mander he travelled to Rome where he was called Renaldo and became a friend of the painter Hans Speckaert...
after he returned from Italy. Van Mander did not mention whether Paul had accompanied his brother to Italy or not, and only remarked that Paul was still a bachelor. According to the RKD Paul lived during the years 1612-1614 in the house of Steven de Gheyn in Leiden, during 1616 in Brussels, and after that moved to London, where he became court painter. He occupied an important position as one of James and Anne's favourite painters and can be seen as a forerunner of the more famous Dutch artists, in particular Daniel Mytens and 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...
, who followed in his footsteps as leading court painters. (In fact, one of van Dyck's first tasks was to copy the royal portraits of Paul van Somer, a duty he did not enjoy.) Van Somer arrived in England as a mature artist, having travelled widely in northern Europe: Booth Tarkington
Booth Tarkington
Booth Tarkington was an American novelist and dramatist best known for his Pulitzer Prize-winning novels The Magnificent Ambersons and Alice Adams...
names the year of his arrival as 1606, but H.L.Meakin
notes that he did not settle permanently in the country until after 1616.
Van Somer's achievement is described in the gallery notes at the Royal Collection
Royal 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...
as follows: "Like Daniel Mytens, who had settled in London from the Netherlands by 1618 and was Van Somer’s neighbour in St Martin’s Lane, Van Somer brought a new grandeur, fluency and naturalism to British court portraiture." Opinion of van Somer's work has, however, been divided: Horace Walpole thought one of Somers's portraits as fine as a Van Dyck, and Booth Tarkington, in his psychological study King James in Faded Paint suggested that "Paulus van Somer had gifts and one of them was for the perception of character"; on the other hand, art critic Sir John Rothenstein
John Rothenstein
Sir John Knewstub Maurice Rothenstein CBE was an English art historian. He grew up in London the son of Sir William Rothenstein. The family was loosely connected to the Bloomsbury Set. John Rothenstein studied at Oxford University and became friends with T. E. Lawrence...
condemned van Somer's work as dull and heavy.
Copies of van Somer's royal portraits were often commissioned, particularly as James disliked sitting for painters, to be sent as gifts overseas. Many variants also exist in printed form. Van Somer is said to have introduced regalia
Regalia
Regalia is Latin plurale tantum for the privileges and the insignia characteristic of a Sovereign.The word stems from the Latin substantivation of the adjective regalis, 'regal', itself from Rex, 'king'...
into royal portraiture, for example that of the Order of the garter
Order of the Garter
The Most Noble Order of the Garter, founded in 1348, is the highest order of chivalry, or knighthood, existing in England. The order is dedicated to the image and arms of St...
.
Lady Anne Clifford
Lady Anne Clifford, 14th Baroness de Clifford was the only surviving child of George Clifford, 3rd Earl of Cumberland by his wife Lady Margaret Russell, daughter of Francis Russell, 2nd Earl of Bedford...
refers in her diary to being painted by him on 30 August 1619. A curiosity of van Somer's oeuvre is his portrait of Elizabeth Drury (1596–1610), a girl made famous by John Donne
John Donne
John Donne 31 March 1631), English poet, satirist, lawyer, and priest, is now considered the preeminent representative of the metaphysical poets. His works are notable for their strong and sensual style and include sonnets, love poetry, religious poems, Latin translations, epigrams, elegies, songs,...
's poems on her death, such as "An Anatomy of the World". Van Somer may have painted the portrait several years after Elizabeth's death, or possibly during her visit to the continent with her parents shortly before she died. The portrait is noteworthy in that the subject is depicted in a semi-recumbent position—unusual for a non-nude of the period— which may, as H.L.Meakin points out, be intended as a sign of a philosophical or melancholy character, as in 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...
's portrait of Henry Percy, earl of Northumberland
Henry Percy, 9th Earl of Northumberland
Henry Percy, 9th Earl of Northumberland KG was an English aristocrat. He was a grandee and one of the wealthiest peers of the court of Elizabeth I. Under James I, Henry was a long-term prisoner in the Tower of London. He is known for the circles he moved in as well as for his own achievements...
.
Some of van Somer's work can still be seen today. He completed a much-reproduced portrait of James I in 1616 and one of Queen Anne in hunting attire with her dogs, in the grounds of Oatlands
Oatlands
Oatlands is a village and small district near Weybridge in Surrey which has acquired its name from the Royal Tudor and Stuart Oatlands Palace, the site of which is now a luxury hotel...
palace, a year later. Van Somer had by then become Anne's favourite painter, supplanting 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...
and Marcus Gheeraerts the Younger
Marcus Gheeraerts the Younger
Marcus Gheeraerts was an artist of the Tudor court, described as "the most important artist of quality to work in England in large-scale between Eworth and Van Dyck" He was brought to England as a child by his father Marcus Gheeraerts the Elder, also a painter...
.Other extant paintings include those of Lady Elizabeth Grey, countess of Kent
Elizabeth Grey, Countess of Kent
Elizabeth Grey, Countess of Kent was the wife of Henry Grey, 8th Earl of Kent.She was a daughter of Gilbert Talbot, 7th Earl of Shrewsbury and Mary Cavendish....
, painted in about 1619, and a portrait of Ludovic Stewart, 2nd Duke of Lennox
Ludovic Stewart, 2nd Duke of Lennox
Ludovic Stewart, 2nd Duke of Lennox and 1st Duke of Richmond was a Scottish nobleman and politician. He was the son of Esmé Stewart, 1st Duke of Lennox and his wife Catherine de Balsac. Stewart was involved in the Plantation of Ulster in Ireland and the colonization of Maine in New England...
.