Portrait of a Lady with a Blue Drape

Sir Peter Lely was a Dutch painter who settled in England around 1647 and became one of London's most successful artists. Following the example of Van Dyck, he developed a fluid, loose style of brushwork which allowed him to capture the glamour and exhuberance of the court of Charles II, as seen here in the shimmering shades of the girl's blue drape.

Curiously, Charles Fairfax Murray the donor of this portrait and himself a painter, once thought it was by Lely’s early rival, Daniel Mytens. But Lely’s signature ‘PL’ was discovered at the bottom right of the painting.