Yale Center for British Art, Paul Mellon Collection
Copyright Status:
Public Domain
Accession Number:
B1981.25.377
Gallery Label:
This portrait of Sir Alexander Temple was once part of a larger group of paintings by Cornelius Johnson that hung at Burford Priory in Oxfordshire, home to William Lenthall, who was Speaker of the House of Commons during the 1650s. The sash that Temple wears around his chest and the gorget around his neck probably refer to his appointment as the Captain of West Tilbury Fort in Essex in 1619. Temple was a relative of Lenthall by virtue of his niece’s marriage to William Lenthall’s brother John. These individuals were among Johnson’s earliest patrons and ordered copies of these portraits from the artist to be shared with members of their extended family. It is thanks to the survival of these copies that we know that the later inscriptions on the bottom left of the picture are incorrect, allowing us to identify the sitter correctly. Gallery label for installation of YCBA collection, 2016
