ROBERT PEAKE

English painter. Born in 1551, died in 1619.

Elected as the official painter of Prince Henry in 1604.

Chosen as the serjeant-painter of King James I in 1607.

ROBERT PEAKE

He began his studies in 1565 with Laurence Woodman.

He joined the Goldsmith’s Company in 1569.

In 1576, he became a freeman.

During the late 1580s, he was a well established painter.

ROBERT PEAKE

Peake was appointed serjeant-painter to King James I, sharing the office with John De Critz.

The role entailed the painting of original portraits and their reproduction as new versions, to be given as gifts or sent to foreign courts, as well as the copying and restoring of portraits by other painters in the royal collection.

ROBERT PEAKE

The serjeant-painters also undertook decorative tasks, such as the painting of banners and stage scenery.

De Critz took responsibility for the more decorative tasks, while Peake continued his work as a royal portrait painter.

ROBERT PEAKE

In 1604, Peake was described as "painter to Prince Henry", the sixteen-year-old prince who was gathering around him a significant cultural salon.

The payments were listed by the Prince's household officer Sir David Murray.

Murray’s accounts reveal that the prince was paying more for tennis balls than for any picture.

PRINCE HENRY

ROBERT PEAKE

Prince Henry died possibly of typhoid fever at the age of eighteen (1912).

After the prince's death, Peake moved on to the household of Henry's brother, Charles, Duke of York, the future Charles I of England.

CHARLES I

ROBERT PEAKE

Peake died in 1619, probably in mid-October. The date of his burial is unknown because the Great Fire of London later destroyed the registers of his parish church, St Sepulchre-without-Newgate.

PROCESSION PICTURE

FULL-LENGTH PORTRAIT

Peake was one of the earliest English painters to explore the full-length.

Peake's combination of figures with animals and landscape also foreshadows the genre of the sporting picture.

Peake exchanged pictures as part of royal marriage proposals.

KINDS OF PICTURES

Hunting scenes, double portraits, gardens…

Prince Henry

Princess Elizabeth

PRINCE HENRY

PRINCESS ELIZABETH