Fortune Favours the Cold
October 19 2011
Picture: National Portrait Gallery. Simon Verelst, 'Portrait of Nell Gwyn', Private Collection.
The National Portrait Gallery's new exhibition The First Actresses: Nell Gwyn to Sarah Siddons is to feature a newly discovered portrait of actress and royal mistress Nell Gwyn (some of you Londoners may have seen it advertised on the tube this morning).
The portrait has been in the ownership of the same family since the 1940's when it was purchased for its decorative frame, the sitter's identity only realized after it was cleaned.
Gwyn's seductive appearance was clearly too much for the kill-joy Victorian viewer and at some point during the nineteenth century her open blouse and bare chest were painted over and replaced by something more 'acceptable'. Unfortunately no images exist of its previous appearance. At the gallery we have encountered these censoring campaigns on a number of occasions, including another of Gwyn here.
Professor Gill Perry, curator of the exhibition says:
'Images such as this rarely seen portrait have contributed to the idea of Nell Gwyn as an early celebrity, whose life story and appearance are known through biographies and salacious gossip. But she was a shrewd manipulator of her own public image, known not just for her affairs and outspoken views, but also for her acting abilities and famous wit'.
Her wit was indeed observed by social commentators of the day including Samuel Pepys who first encountered 'Pretty Witty Nell' at the Dukes Theatre in Lincolns Inn Fields in April 1665.
The portrait was painted by Simon Verelst (1644-c.1721) between 1680-5. Verelst came to England in 1669 already having an established reputation as a flower painter - an element he frequently incorporated into his portraiture. Gwyn was a consistent patron of Verelst and the NPG already has on display a more formal half-length on display in the Wolfson Gallery.
Information and tickets for the exhibiton can be seen here.
By LH
