Sotheby's: Important British Pictures: Lot 132
STUDIO OF JOHN RILEY 1646-1691
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PORTRAIT OF WILLIAM CHIFFINCH (1602-1688)
measurements note
75 by 62 cm., 29½ by 24¼ in.
half length, wearing brown robes and a white shirt
oil on canvas, in a carved silver-gilt frame
NOTE
The sitter was page to Charles II's bedchamber and keeper of the private closet. In these roles he enjoyed the confidence of the King's mistresses and played a central role in the intrigues and secrets of the Court, for example, as the receiver of the secret pension paid by the Court of Louis XIV. Contemporay libels, such as 'Sir Edmonbury Godfrey's Ghost' (1678), made mention of his more nefarious practices:
'It happened, in the twilight of the day,
As England's monarch in his closet lay;
And Chiffinch stepp'd to fetch the female prey'
The sitter was also M.P. for Windsor between 1685 and 1687, and his daughter, from his marriage to Barbara Nunn, later married Edmund Villiers, 1st Earl of Jersey.
The present work appears to derive from the portrait by John Riley in the Dulwich Picture Art Gallery.
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