John Bettes the Elder (active c. 1531–1570) was an English artist whose few known paintings date from between about 1543 and 1550. His most famous work is his Portrait of a Man in a Black Cap. His son, John Bettes the Younger (with whom he is sometimes confused), was a pupil of Nicholas Hilliard who painted portraits during the reign of Elizabeth I and James I.[1]
Nothing is known of John Bettes's life, except that he was living in Westminster in 1556, according to a documented court case.[2] He is first recorded as working for Henry VIII at Whitehall Palace in 1531. Queen Catherine Parr's accounts for 1546/47 record payments to Bettes for "lymning" (painting in miniature) the king's and queen's portraits, and for six other portraits.[2] Her new year's gift of 1547 to Prince Edward was a pair of portraits of the king and herself.[3] Bettes has been identified as the designer of the engraved title-border for William Cuningham's Cosmographical Glasse, printed by John Day in 1559. He may also be the designer of engravings for Edward Hall's Chronicle, published in 1550, and of a woodcut portrait of Franz Burchard, the Saxon ambassador to England, published in 1560. In 1576, John Foxe referred to Bettes as already dead.[2][4] An earlier second edition of Foxe's Actes and Monuments printed in 1570 refers to Bettes' death.[5]
The identification of John Bettes's work stems from the inscription on the back of Man in a Black Cap: "faict par Johan Bettes Anglois" ("done by John Bettes, Englishman").[6] The painting is dated 1545 on the front. On the basis of its style, four further portraits have been attributed to Bettes: two of Thomas Wentworth, 1st Baron Wentworth, (1549); one of Sir William Butts the Younger (154/3?); and one of Sir William Cavendish (c. 1545).[4]
Style edit
Man in a Black Cap's technique is reminiscent of Hans Holbein the Younger's, suggesting that Bettes may have worked with Holbein as part of his workshop.[2] Nothing, however, is known of Holbein's workshop other than paintings seemingly associated with it. Holbein does not appear to have founded a school, and Bettes is the only artist whose work reveals his technical influence. For example, he paints over a pink priming, as did Holbein. According to art historian Roy Strong, "He is the artist who, on grounds of style, has the best claim to have worked under Holbein".[4] On the other hand, Bettes's style is distinct from Holbein's; he paints fur more loosely and the beard more flatly than the German artist.[7] In the view of art historian Susan Foister, on the evidence of this portrait, Bettes is "unlikely to have assisted" Holbein.[7]
The recording of an artist's name on a painting is rare in this period. The addition of Bettes' nationality suggests that Man in a Black Cap may have been painted abroad.[6] Since the work's creation, the blue smalt pigment of the background has turned brown; the painting has also been cut down along the sides and bottom, with the inscription reaffixed to the back.[2] It has been speculated that the portrait may be of Edmund Butts, the brother of the William Butts whom Bettes painted. Both were sons of William Butts, a court physician whose portrait Holbein painted in 1543.[2]
Notes and references edit
- ^ Karen Hearn, Dynasties: Painting in Tudor and Jacobean England, 1530–1630, London: Tate Publishing, 1995, ISBN 1-85437-157-6, 47. John Bettes the Younger died in 1616.
- ^ a b c d e f Karen Hearn, Dynasties: Painting in Tudor and Jacobean England, 1530–1630, London: Tate Publishing, 1995, ISBN 1-85437-157-6, 46–47.
- ^ Strype, John, Ecclesiastical Memorials, vol 2, part 2, Oxford (1822), 512, Edward to Katharine, 10 January 1546/7.
- ^ a b c Roy Strong, The English Icon: Elizabethan & Jacobean Portraiture, London: Paul Mellon Foundation, 1969, 65–67.
- ^ Edmond, Mary, 'Limners & Picturemakers', 47th Annual volume of the Walpole Society, London, (1980), 67.
- ^ a b Ellis Waterhouse, Painting in Britain: 1530–1790, London: Penguin, 1978, ISBN 0-14-056101-3, 23.
- ^ a b Susan Foister, Holbein in England, London: Tate, 2006, ISBN 1-85437-645-4, 116.
External links edit
Media related to John Bettes the Elder at Wikimedia Commons- 6 artworks by or after John Bettes the Elder at the Art UK site
