Robert Kerr, 1st Earl of Ancram, 1578 - 1654
About this artwork
A poet, courtier and statesman, Robert Kerr was created Earl of Ancram on the occasion of Charles I's Scottish coronation in 1633. A man of refined taste and great culture, Kerr was the first to bring works by Rembrandt to Britain. After Charles's execution in 1649, he went into exile and spent the last years of his life in poverty in Amsterdam. He nevertheless had at least a couple of portraits of himself painted there. At his death, Kerr's body was retained by his creditors for four months and only released for burial through the mediation of Cromwell.
Updated before 2020
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artist:Jan Lievens (1607 - 1674) Dutch
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title:Robert Kerr, 1st Earl of Ancram, 1578 - 1654
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date created:1654
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materials:Oil on canvas
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measurements:62.20 x 51.40 cm
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object type:
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credit line:Accepted by HM Government in lieu of Inheritance Tax and allocated to the Scottish National Portrait Gallery, 2010
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accession number:PG 3663
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artwork photographed by:Antonia Reeve
Jan Lievens
Jan Lievens
A contemporary and friend of Rembrandt, Lievens trained with the history painter Pieter Lastman in Amsterdam from 1617. In the later 1620s, he was closely associated with Rembrandt, when both were working in Lieden. Both artists, still young at the time, could well have shared a studio, and there...