Thomas Killigrew (1612-1683)

after William Sheppard (England c.1602 - Italy c.1660). Oil painting on canvas. Thomas Killigrew (1612-1694), after William Sheppard (England c.1602 - Italy c.1660), inscribed bottom left: Killigrew and on the book: KILLIGREW/RESIDEN[T]/For CR2/in Venice/1650 POLIDOR DREAM/ACT PR/SACE I. A three-quarter-length portrait of a man, seated his head resting on his left hand, holding a paper in his right hand on a desk at which he is sitting, facing left, gazing at the spectator, in white dress with green cloak, a portrait of Charles I on the wall behind to the right, and a dog at his feet. The playwright. Playwright and royal favourite, and in 1660 groom to the bedchamber. The original portrait was painted in Venice in 1650. One of a number of versions of a signed work of 1650 by Sheppard, an otherwise unknown painter who was in Rome in 1651 and Venice the year before. On the table is a paper (or book) with the words 'Killigrew Resident for CR Venice 1650'. The titles of the plays on the tabel must have been added after 1650 as not published until they appeared in Comedies and Tradedies, 1664: Claricilia, The Princesse, The Prisoners, The Pilgrim, Parson's Wedding, The Wanderer, Cicilia or (?) the (?) Revenge, EIk?N BA?IAIKE. Sudbury Hall, Derbyshire