page_title: Robert Peake the Elder
section_title: Painter to Prince Henry
hierarchical_section_title: Robert Peake the Elder / Career / Painter to Prince Henry
caption_attribution_description: English: Prince Henry Frederick, eldest son of James VI &amp; I and Anne of Denmark, (Palazzo Reale, Turin). Français&#160;: Le Prince Henri-Frédéric Stuart, fils aîné de Jacques Ier d'Angleterre et de Anne de Danemark.
context_page_description: Robert Peake the Elder was an English painter active in the later part of Elizabeth I's reign and for most of the reign of James I. In 1604, he was appointed picture maker to the heir to the throne, Prince Henry; and in 1607, serjeant-painter to King James I – a post he shared with John De Critz. Peake is often called "the elder", to distinguish him from his son, the painter and print seller William Peake and from his grandson, Sir Robert Peake, who followed his father into the family print-selling business.
  Peake was the only English-born painter of a group of four artists whose workshops were closely connected. The others were De Critz, Marcus Gheeraerts the Younger, and the miniature painter Isaac Oliver. Between 1590 and about 1625, they specialised in brilliantly coloured, full-length "costume pieces" that are unique to England at this time. It is not always possible to attribute authorship between Peake, De Critz, Gheeraerts and their assistants with certainty.
context_section_description: In 1607, after the death of Leonard Fryer, Peake was appointed serjeant-painter to King James I, sharing the office with John De Critz, who had held the post since 1603. 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.
  In addition to copying and restoring portraits, the serjeant-painters also undertook decorative tasks, such as the painting of banners and stage scenery. Parchment rolls of the Office of the Works record that De Critz oversaw the decorating of royal houses and palaces. Since Peake's work is not recorded there, it seems as if De Critz took responsibility for the more decorative tasks, while Peake continued his work as a royal portrait painter. However, Peake and Paul Isackson painted the cabins, carvings, and armorials on the ship the Prince Royal in 1611.
  In 1610, Peake was described as "painter to Prince Henry", the sixteen-year-old prince who was gathering around him a significant cultural salon. Peake commissioned a translation of Books I-V of Sebastiano Serlio's Architettura, which he dedicated to the prince in 1611. Scholars have deduced from payments made to Peake that his position as painter to Prince Henry led to his appointment as serjeant-painter to the king. The payments were listed by the Prince's household officer Sir David Murray as disbursements from the Privy Purse to "Mr Peck". On 14 October 1608, Peake was paid £7 for "pictures made by His Highness’ command"; and on 14 July 1609, he was paid £3 "for a picture of His Highness which was given in exchange for the King’s picture". At about the same time, Isaac Oliver was paid £5.10s.0d. for each of three miniatures of the prince. Murray's accounts reveal, however, that the prince was paying more for tennis balls than for any picture.
  Peake is also listed in Sir David Murray's accounts for the period between 1 October 1610 and 6 November 1612, drawn up to the day on which Henry, Prince of Wales, died, possibly of typhoid fever, at the age of eighteen: "To Mr Peake for pictures and frames £12; two great pictures of the Prince in arms at length sent beyond the seas £50; and to him for washing, scouring and dressing of pictures and making of frames £20.4s.0d".  Peake is listed in the accounts for Henry's funeral under "Artificers and officers of the Works" as "Mr Peake the elder painter".  For the occasion, he was allotted seven yards of mourning cloth, plus four for a servant. Also listed is "Mr Peake the younger painter", meaning Robert's son William, who was allotted four yards of mourning cloth.
  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. The accounts for 1616, which call Peake the prince's painter, record that he was paid £35 for "three several pictures of his Highness". On 10 July 1613, he was paid £13.6s.8d. by the vice-chancellor of the University of Cambridge, "in full satisfaction for Prince Charles his picture", for a full-length portrait which is still in the Cambridge University Library.
caption: Prince Henry, c. 1610. His foot rests on a shield bearing the device of the Prince of Wales, a title conferred on him the same year.
exif: {"Image Orientation": "Horizontal (normal)", "Image XResolution": "300", "Image YResolution": "300", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image Software": "Adobe Photoshop CS2 Windows", "Image DateTime": "2012:05:17 12:42:31", "Image ExifOffset": "164", "Thumbnail Compression": "JPEG (old-style)", "Thumbnail XResolution": "72", "Thumbnail YResolution": "72", "Thumbnail ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormat": "302", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormatLength": "6873", "EXIF ColorSpace": "Uncalibrated", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "450", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "700"}