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Portrait of Edward Hyde Clarendon (1609-1674), English statesman and historian. On the print, the spelling of his name has been corrected from Edmund to Edward. Another copy of this mezzotint portrait is in the collection of the National Portrait Gallery in London.
Clarendon became one of Charles II's chief advisors during his exile, and became lord chancellor and earl of Clarendon after the Restoration of the monarchy in 1660. He was consistent and moderate in his views, which countered the prevailing politics of the time and made him enough enemies that he was eventually ousted from power and fled to France to live the rest of his life in exile. There he wrote an important six-volume work on the Civil War, the History of the Great Rebellion. Through the marriage of his daughter, he was grandfather to both Queen Mary and Queen Anne.
Gerard Soest (referred to on this print as Zoust) was a painter who established a respectable career in London. Almost certainly Dutch by birth and training, he probably came to England in the late 1640s. Over a dozen portrait paintings and mezzotints by Soest are in the collection of the National Portrait Gallery in London.
Condition: Very good apart from very light soiling in the margins, some small 1/8" tears at the edges and light creasing in the corners. Sheet trimmed close to image on sides and top, as is often the case with separately issued 18th-century mezzotint portraits.
References:
"Edward Hyde, 1st Earl of Clarendon." The Columbia Encyclopedia, 6th Ed. New York: Columbia University Press: 2001. http://www.bartleby.com/65/cl/ClarendoE.html (21 May 2002).
"NPG D1453, Edward Hyde, 1st Earl of Clarendon." London: National Portrait Gallery. http://www.npg.org.uk/live/search/portrait.asp?search=ss&sText=clarendon&LinkID=mp00891&rNo=0&role=sit (21 May 2002). |
