Levina Teerlinc

File:Simon Bening.webp

Teerlinc was born in Bruges, Flanders (which is now a part of Belgium) in the 1510s, one of five daughters of renowned miniaturist Simon Bening and granddaughter of Catherine van der Goes (closely related to Hugo van der Goes) and Alexander Bening.{{cite web| url = https://www.encyclopedia.com/women/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/teerlinc-levina-c-1520-1576| title = Teerlinc, Levina (c. 1520–1576) {{!}} Encyclopedia.com}}{{Cite book| url=https://archive.org/details/dictionaryofwome01gaze/page/1358| title=Dictionary of women artists| date=1997| publisher=Fitzroy Dearborn Publishers| others=Gaze, Delia.| isbn=1884964214| location=London| pages=[https://archive.org/details/dictionaryofwome01gaze/page/1358 1358–1359]| oclc=37693713}} After marrying George Teerlinc of Blanckenberge in 1545, Teerlinc left for England, and is documented there by 1546, when she became court painter to the Tudor court, serving Henry VIII, Edward VI, Mary I, and Elizabeth I. She received an annual salary of £40 from 1546 until her death in 1576,Walter G. Richardson, The Report of the Royal Commission of 1552 (West Virginia University Library, 1974), p. 122. as granted by Henry VIII and recorded by Lodovico Guicciardini (1567),{{Cite book|url=https://archive.org/details/womenartists155000harr/page/102|title=Women artists, 1550-1950|last=Sutherland|first=Harris, Ann|date=1976|publisher=Los Angeles County Museum of Art|others=Nochlin, Linda,, Los Angeles County Museum of Art|isbn=0394411692|edition=First|location=Los Angeles|pages=[https://archive.org/details/womenartists155000harr/page/102 102–104]|oclc=2542396}} which was more than was provided to Holbein.Strong 1983:52

Levina died before she was able to acquire her last £10, Queen Elizabeth was able to give this to her husband as a "gift". It is thought to have been rewarding the Teerlincs for their loyalty to her during the reign of Mary.[https://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt3fh9v6.8] She was the only female painter in the court of Henry VIII,{{Cite book|url=https://archive.org/details/dictionaryofwome01gaze|title=Dictionary of women artists|last=Gaze|first=Delia|date=1997|publisher=Fitzroy Dearborn Publishers|isbn=9781884964213|location=London; Chicago|language=en|oclc=37693713}} although Catherine Parr was said to have employed three women miniature painters and these were Susannah Hornebolt, Levina Teerlinc and Margaret Holsewyther.{{Cite journal|last=James|first=Susan E.|date=2018-01-01|editor-last=Maes|editor-first=Hans|title=Lady jane grey or queen kateryn parr? National portrait gallery painting 6804: Analysis and historical context|journal=Cogent Arts & Humanities|language=en|volume=5|issue=1|pages=1533368|doi=10.1080/23311983.2018.1533368|issn=2331-1983|doi-access=free}}

In English records her name was recorded in a variety of spellings, including in 1552 "Mrs Sevin Tilney, paintrix".Walter G. Richardson, The Report of the Royal Commission of 1552 (West Virginia University Library, 1974), p. 122. Queen Mary gave her a New Year's day gift of a gilt silver salt in 1556 and she gave the queen a small picture of the Trinity.John Nichols, [https://archive.org/details/illustrationsofm00nich/page/n405/mode/2up llustrations of the manners and expences of antient times in England (London, 1797), pp. 9, 22] In 1559 Teerlinc was appointed tutor in painting to the King's daughter at the Spanish Court. She and her husband had one son, Marcus. She died in Stepney, London on 23 June 1576.RKD data

Art historian Louisa Woodville writes:{{Cite web |last=Woodville |first=Louisa |date=2020-05-12 |title=Levina Teerlinc, Artist and Gentlewoman of the Tudor Court |url=https://artherstory.net/levina-teerlinc/ |access-date=2023-10-04 |website=Art Herstory |language=en-US}}

Teerlinc’s contemporaries were impressed by her work. The sixteenth-century Florentine historian Lodovico Guicciardini heralds Teerlinc as the best of the women painters practicing at the time. Seventy-five years later, Flemish historian Antonius Sanderus assured his readers that she was “very capable in the two specialties of art.”

File:Levina Teerlinc Elizabeth I c 1565 b.jpg attributed to Levina Teerlinc, c. 1560–1565. The Royal Collection.{{Cite web |title=British School, 16th century - Elizabeth I (1533-1603) |url=https://www.rct.uk/collection/420944/elizabeth-i-1533-1603 |access-date=2023-10-04 |website=www.rct.uk |language=en}} The likeness the sitter bears to those in miniatures of Katherine Grey, Countess of Hertford, has led to many suggestions that Lady Katherine Grey may be the sitter instead]]

No surviving works have been confirmed as Teerlinc's.{{Cite journal| last=Bergmans| first=Simone| date=1934-01-01| title=The Miniatures of Levina Teerling| jstor=865738| journal=The Burlington Magazine for Connoisseurs| volume=64| issue=374| pages=232–236}} Yet she was one of the most well-documented artists at court in miniature painting, providing various portraits of Elizabeth I in the years 1559, 1562, 1563, 1564, 1567 ("a full-length portrait"), 1568 ("with Knights of the Order"), 1575 ("with other personages"), and 1576. She also painted for Mary I in 1556 as a New Year gift "a small picture of the trynitie". Teerlinc is best known for her pivotal position in the rise of the portrait miniature. She might have trained Nicholas Hilliard, by training a goldsmith, in the methods of miniature portraiture.{{Cite journal| last=Strong| first=Roy| date=1983-01-01| title=Nicholas Hilliard's miniature of the 'Wizard Earl'| jstor=40382082| journal=Bulletin van het Rijksmuseum| volume=31| issue=1| pages=54–62}}

Attributing Teerlinc's works is challenging because she did not always sign them. However, there are a few existing paintings that are suspected to be Teerlinc's due to the fact she was the only active miniaturist of prominence in English court between Hans Holbein the Younger in 1543 and Nicholas Hilliard in the 1570s.Sutherland-Harris, Ann, and Linda Nochlin. Women Artists: 1550–1950. Los Angeles: Museum Associates of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 1976. Print. Some scholars also speculate that many of the miniatures were lost in the fire at Whitehall.{{Cite journal| last=Bergmans| first=Simone| year=1934| title=The Miniatures of Levina Teerling| journal=The Burlington Magazine for Connoisseurs| pages=232–236}}

File:Catherine Grey with son.jpg with her eldest son Edward Seymour, Lord Beauchamp, by Levina Teerlinc. Late 1562 or early 1563. Private collection]]

A 1983 exhibition at the Victoria and Albert Museum represented "the first occasion when a group of miniatures has been assembled which can be attributed to Levina Teerlinc". Since the exhibition also performed the same function for her predecessor as court miniaturist, Lucas Hornebolte, it was especially useful in developing consensus on attributions. Five miniatures and two illuminated manuscript sheets were in the group, including a miniature of Lady Katherine Grey from the V&A, and others from the Yale Center for British Art, the Royal Collection (both of these possibly of the young Elizabeth I, and private collections). Strong considered there was "a convincing group of miniatures that emerge as the work of a single hand, one whose draughtsmanship is weak, whose paint is thin and transparent and whose brushwork loose". She also probably designed the Great Seal of England for Mary I and the earliest one used by Elizabeth (in the 1540s).{{Cite book| title=What Women Can Make| last=King| first=Catherine| year=1999| pages=61–62}}

File:Miniatureenlarged.jpg of Amy Robsart on the occasion of her wedding, 1550,{{#tag:ref|There have been several tentative identifications of this miniature. One theory is that it is a wedding picture of Lady Jane Grey, Amy Robsart's sister-in-law. Eric Ives argues that it cannot be Jane Grey because (among other considerations) she was too young, and says: "If the sitter was a Dudley wife and the miniature is a wedding memento, the acorns suggest Amy Robsart, who married ... at the precise age of 18 (Robert, robur, Latin for oak)." (Ives 2009 pp. 295, 15–16). Chris Skidmore concurs with this, adding that Robert Dudley used the oak as a personal symbol in his youth (Skidmore 2010 p. 21).|group="note"}} by Levina Teerlinc. In the Yale Center for British Art]]

• Levina Teerlinc, Portrait of Lady Katherine Grey, ca. 1555–1560, Museum no. P.10-1979{{cite web|url=https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O74851/miniature-portrait-of-katherine-grey/ |title=Portrait miniature of Katherine Grey, Countess of Herford; Katherine Grey, Countess of Hertford | Teerlinc | V&A Search the Collections |publisher=Collections.vam.ac.uk |date=2014-01-09 |access-date=2014-01-21}}
• Levina Teerlinc, Portrait of a Young Woman, 1566, Museum no. P.21-1954{{cite web|url=https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O82007/miniature-portrait-of-an-unknown-woman |title=Portrait of an unknown woman | Teerlinc, Levina (Mrs) | V&A Search the Collections |publisher=Collections.vam.ac.uk |access-date=2014-01-21}}
• Levina Teerlinc, Portrait of Mary Dudley, Lady Sidney, ca.1575, Museum no. E.1170-1988{{cite web|url=https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O174799/miniature-portrait-of-mary-dudley-lady |title=Portrait of Mary Dudley, Lady Sidney (d.1586) | Levina Teerlinc | V&A Search the Collections |publisher=Collections.vam.ac.uk |date=2014-01-09 |access-date=2014-01-21}}

• Levina Teerlinc?, Portrait of Queen Mary I, Duke of Buccleuch's collection
• Levina Teerlinc?, Portrait of a Young Woman, Royal Collection, Windsor Castle
• Levina Teerlinc?, Portrait of Elizabeth I in State Robes, Welbeck Abbey collection

File:CGrey.jpg|Katherine Grey, Countess of Hertford by Levina Teerlinc, c. 1555-1560. The Victoria and Albert Museum, P.10&A-1979

File:Levina Teerlinc Elizabeth I c 1565.jpg|Portrait of Elizabeth I attributed to Levina Teerlinc, c. 1565. The Royal Collection

File:Mary Dudley Lady Sidney miniature portrait.jpeg|Mary Dudley, Lady Sidney by Levina Teerlinc, c. 1575. The Victoria and Albert Museum, E.1170-1988

File:Edward VI by Levina Teerlinc.png|Edward VI by Levina Teerlinc.{{Cite web |last=Auction House |first=Sotheby's |title=ATTRIBUTED TO LEVINA TEERLINC {{!}} Portrait of Edward VI, King of England (1537-1553), circa 1550 |url=https://www.sothebys.com/en/auctions/ecatalogue/2018/pohl-stroher-collection-l18322/lot.1.html?locale=en }} After William Scrots's portrait of the young King of c. 1550

File:Amy Robsart – The Beaufort Miniature.png|Amy Robsart – The Beaufort Miniature by Levina Teerlinc, c. 1559.{{#tag:ref|"Second half of the second half of the 1550's"{{Cite web|title=The Beaufort Miniature Portrait|url=https://ladyjanegreyrevisited.com/2019/07/01/the-beaufort-miniature-portrait/|access-date=2021-10-22|website=Lady Jane Grey Revisited|date=July 2019|language=en-US}}|group="note"}} Private Collection

File:Lady Katherine Grey by Levina Teerlinc.png|Katherine Grey, Countess of Hertford by Levina Teerlinc. The Victoria and Albert Museum, P.21-1954. Heavily overpainted. The date of '1549' is a later addition and the costume is typical of Mary’s reign which would accord with the age of the sitter, about fifteen to twenty, circa 1555-60Strong 1983:53

File:Elizabeth I when a Princess by Levina Teerlinc.png|Elizabeth I when a Princess by Levina Teerlinc, c. 1551. The Paine Miniature. In October 1551 Levina Teerlinc was sent with her husband to the Princess Elizabeth 'to drawe out her picture'

File:Mary Neville, Lady Dacre.png|Mary Neville, Lady Dacre by Levina Teerlinc

File:Portrait of a man, possibly Sir George Carew.png|Portrait of a man, possibly Sir George Carew. Bought in 1970 together with the Yale Miniature from the collection of Miss Dorothy Hutton. At the time it was thought to have been painted by the same hand as the Yale Miniature

File:Elizabeth I Coronation Miniature.jpg|The Coronation Miniature – Portrait of Elizabeth I in State Robes. Welbeck Abbey Collection, formerly in the collection of the Duke of Portland.

File:Elizabeth I in coronation robes.jpg|Portrait of Elizabeth I of England in her coronation robes. Copy {{circa|1600–1610}} of a lost original of {{circa|1559}}Arnold 1978

File:Queen Mary I enthroned and flanked by angels.JPG|Levina Teerlinc, Mary I with Figures in Landscape, Court of King's Bench, Coram Rege Rolls. Michaelmas, 1553

File:Indenture between Queen Elizabeth I and the Dean and Canons of St. George’s Chapel by Levina Teerlinc.png|Levina Teerlinc, Indenture between the Queen, Elizabeth I, and the Dean and Canons of St. George’s Chapel, Windsor, 30 August 1559

File:Illuminated membrane, with portrait of Elizabeth, 1572.jpg|Elizabeth I, Court of King's Bench, Coram Rege Roll. Easter Term, 1572

File:Elizabeth I – 1571 – Levina Teerlinc.png|link=|Illuminated Royal Letters Patent, 1571. Elizabeth I by Levina Teerlinc on this document, on vellum, recording the elevation of William Cecil to the peerage as Lord Burghley{{Cite web |title=Illuminated Royal Letters Patent, 1571. {{!}} Burghley Collections |url=https://collections.burghley.co.uk/collection/illuminated-royal-letters-patent-1571/ |access-date=2023-11-21}}

File:Queen Mary I curing scrofula Levina Teerlinc 16th C.jpg|Mary I "healing" scrofula by touch. A 16th-century illustration by the Queen's miniaturist Levina Teerlinc from Queen Mary's manual for blessing cramp rings and touching for Evil. Before 1558{{Cite web |last=Taylor |first=Melanie V. |date=2020-04-09 |title=The Good Friday Ceremony of the blessing of cramp rings and the curing of the King’s Evil |url=https://melanievtaylor.co.uk/2020/04/09/the-good-friday-ceremony-of-the-blessing-of-cramp-rings-and-the-curing-of-the-kings-evil/ |access-date=2023-10-05 |website=Melanie V Taylor |language=en}}

File:Horenbout HenryVIII.jpg|Henry VIII. A recent technical analysis has shown that this miniature was painted by the same hand as the Yale Miniature{{Cite journal |last=Saltmarsh |first=Polly |date=2020-09-30 |title=Portrait of an Unknown Lady: Technical Analysis of an Early Tudor Miniature |url=https://www.britishartstudies.ac.uk/index/article-index/portrait-of-an-unknown-lady/article-category/article |journal=British Art Studies |language=en |issue=17 |doi=10.17658/issn.2058-5462/issue-17/psaltmarsh |issn=2058-5462}}

File:Katherine Parr by Levina Teerlinc.png|Katherine Parr by Levina Teerlinc. The Sudeley Miniature

File:Katherine Brydges, Lady Dudley.png|Katherine Brydges, Lady Dudley by Levina Teerlinc, c. 1560. A courtier to both Mary I and Elizabeth I. The daughter of John Brydges, 1st Baron Chandos and the wife of Edward Sutton, 4th Baron Dudley{{Cite book |last=Emerson |first=Kathy Lynn |url=https://www.amazon.com/Whos-Who-Tudor-Women-ebook/dp/B08L5HLHXN |title=A Who's Who of Tudor Women |date=2020-10-11 |publisher=Kathy Lynn Emerson |language=English}}

File:Edward Seymour, 1st Earl of Hertford and 1st Duke of Somerset.png|Edward Seymour, 1st Earl of Hertford and 1st Duke of Somerset, 1550s{{Citation |last=Museum |first=The Victoria and Albert |title=Portrait Miniature of an Unknown Man |date=1550s |url=https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O81991/portrait-miniature-of-an-unknown-portrait-miniature-anonymous/ |access-date=2023-08-30 |quote=In Roy Strong's exhibition catalogue Artists of the Tudor Court: the Portrait Miniature Rediscovered 1520-1620, London, V&A, 1983, this miniature was cat.no. 110. Strong attributed it to Nicholas Hilliard, suggesting it was probably copied after a portrait by Levina Teerlinc from 1550, and was possibly of "Edward Seymour, 1st Earl of Hertford and 1st Duke of Somerset", and dated it to c. 1600. In a recent reassessment of the workshop practice of Nicholas Hilliard Katherine Coombs and Alan Derbyshire of the V&A re-examined this miniature. Their conclusion was that "the miniature clearly dates from the 1550s". They further noted that the gold inscription, though 'not of a high quality, is in Hilliard’s manner.' (See Katherine Coombs and Alan Derbyshire, 'Nicholas Hilliard's Workshop Practice reconsidered', in 'Painting in Britain 1500-1630: Production, Influences and Patronage', ed. T.Cooper et al, Oxford, 2015, pp.241-251.). The inscription in the manner of Hilliard is discussed in the light of other works pre-dating Hilliard which are inscribed in Hilliard's characteristic curling gold calligraphy: such as Hans Holbein's 'Lord Abergavenny' in the collection of the Duke of Buccleuch. This suggests that it is plausible for this miniature of an unknown man to date from the 1550s but have an inscription added by Hilliard in the late 16th century. It is worth noting that the inscription on this miniature - 'Aetatis suae' - is unfinished, as the age of the sitter has not been added, and was perhaps unknown to the person adding the inscription.}}

File:Thomas Seymour Workshop of Holbein.jpg|Thomas Seymour, 1st Baron Seymour of Sudeley, c. 1545–1547

File:Elizabethan Maundy Teerlinc.jpg|An Elizabethan Maundy, miniature by Levina Teerlinc, c. 1560Strong 1983:55

File:Elizabeth I c 1559.jpg|Elizabeth I, c. 1559. Has the spindly arms identified by StrongStrong 1981:45; Quote: "all the characteristics of Teerlinc's spidery style"

File:Elzbieta przyjmuj ca ambasadoró.jpg|Queen Elizabeth I of England receives Dutch ambassadors, attributed to Levina Teerlinc, c. 1560

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• Arnold, Janet: "The 'Coronation' Portrait of Queen Elizabeth I", The Burlington Magazine, CXX, 1978, pp. 727–41.
• {{cite book |last=Chadwick |first=Whitney |author-link=Whitney Chadwick |title=Women, Art, and Society |url=https://archive.org/details/womenartsociety00chad_0 |url-access=registration |publisher= Thames and Hudson |location=London |year=1990 |isbn=9780500202418 }}
• Harris, Anne Sutherland and Linda Nochlin, Women Artists: 1550-1950, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Knopf, New York, 1976.
• Strong, Roy: "From Manuscript to Miniature" in John Murdoch, Jim Murrell, Patrick J. Noon & Roy Strong, The English Miniature, Yale University Press, New Haven and London, 1981 (Strong 1981)
• Strong, Roy: Artists of the Tudor Court: The Portrait Miniature Rediscovered, 1520-1620, Victoria & Albert Museum exhibition catalogue, 1983, {{ISBN|0-905209-34-6}} (Strong 1983)

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Category:1510s births

Category:Flemish portrait painters

Category:Portrait miniaturists

Category:16th-century Flemish women painters

Category:16th-century births

Category:1576 deaths

Category:16th-century English women painters

Category:Flemish court painters

Category:16th-century English painters

Category:People from Stepney

Category:Painters from Bruges

Category:Expatriates in the Kingdom of England

Category:Court of Henry VIII

Category:Court of Edward VI

Category:Court of Mary I of England

Category:Court of Elizabeth I