In 1672, the Southern Italian painter Antonio Verrio crossed the Channel and settled in London, heeding the advice of Ralph Montagu, later 1st Duke of Montagu.[1]  The two had first become acquainted in Paris, where the English aristocrat had been King Charles II’s Ambassador Extraordinary to the French Court between 1669 and 1672, and where Verrio had rapidly made a name for himself as a fresco painter and gregarious bon vivant, after his arrival in about 1670.[2]  A native of Lecce or Naples, the artist had been active in both cities, primarily carrying out religious commissions for church altarpieces, before moving to the French region of Toulouse in the mid-1660s, likely via Rome, Florence and Genoa.[3]  In so doing, he left behind his Italian wife and children and settled with a local woman, Françoise Dangély,[4]  who would later be recorded as his wife in English documents from the reign of King Charles II.[5]

Verrio’s formative travels through Italy, albeit scarcely documented, help explain how he absorbed the language of Baroque mural painting, to the point that later historians believed him to have been a pupil of Pietro da Cortona in Rome.[6]  In Toulouse, he executed mythological and allegorical scenes for the residences of aristocratic families - only fragments of which are extant today - and a number of religious pictures, including a Marriage of the Virgin for the Discalced Carmelites and a Saint Felix of Cantalice for the Capuchins, both now in the Musée des Augustins.[7]  The earliest surviving testimony of his aptitude for fresco decoration can be found in the former residence of Catherine and Pierre Brûlart, Seigneur du Broussin, in Paris, adorned with representations of Bacchus and Ariadne, Morpheus and Endymion, and Minerva and the Arts, which prefigure his work for English patrons.[8]

With the restoration of the monarchy in Britain in 1660, the nobility enjoyed a period of renewed splendour, which afforded attractive opportunities for the young Verrio. Once in London, he was introduced by Montagu to Henry Bennet, 1st Earl of Arlington, whose Euston Hall in Suffolk is described by contemporary diarist John Evelyn as hosting Verrio’s earliest work in England (lost in fire in 1902).[9]  His second commission of note at the court of Charles II came from John Maitland, 2nd Earl Lauderdale, who was created Duke in 1672 and in the same year married the widowed Countess of Dysart, chatelaine of the stately Ham House in Richmond.[10]  Verrio frescoed the ceilings of three rooms in the newly minted Duchess’ apartments, with both religious and mythological subjects. Shortly afterwards, in 1674, he completed a large canvas for the Grand Staircase of Powys Castle in Wales, the seat of William Herbert, 1st Earl of Powis.[11]  Rather than in situ, the Welsh commission was likely executed in London, where between 1674 and 1676 Verrio is recorded living in one of the wings of Sir Thomas Clarges' house in Piccadilly, close to the London residence of his patron Lord Arlington.[12]  Verrio’s continual activity for members of the court eventually brought him to the attention of the King, for whom in about 1674 he executed The Sea Triumph of Charles II (Royal Collection Trust). In this canvas, both the Baroque legacy of Verrio’s Italian roots and his ability as a portrait painter emerge, albeit the monarch’s likeness appears not to have been drawn from life, but from a miniature by Samuel Cooper.[13]

The painting must have pleased Charles II, as Verrio was denizened shortly after its completion in 1675, and a commission to decorate the North Range of Windsor Castle followed.[14]  This ambitious project occupied Verrio for about a decade and saw him employ a large team of assistants, in addition to collaborating with gilders and carvers, including the celebrated Grinling Gibbons. Completed in 1684, Verrio’s work at Windsor spanned twenty ceilings, three staircases, the King’s Chapel and Old St George’s Hall, a remarkable accomplishment that led Charles II to naming the Italian his ‘Chief and first painter’, a title that had been Sir Peter Lely’s (d. 1680), and to awarding him a generous annual salary, in addition to the payment of £7,945 8s 4d for the decorations.[15]  Today, only three ceilings – in the King’s Dining Room, the Queen’s Audience Chamber and the Presence Chamber – and some fragments survive, as the rest fell victim to George IV’s reconstruction of the Castle in the 1820s.[16]

In parallel to his work at Windsor Castle, Verrio carried out a number of other commissions, including a representation of Apollo on his chariot for James Scott, 1st Duke of Monmouth in the Saloon at Moor Park; a portrait of army Colonel the Hon. Sackville Tufton (Abbot Hall Gallery, Kendal); the decoration of a staircase and of the ‘great room’ in the Bloomsbury residence of Lord Montagu (now lost); and a gigantic three-part canvas celebrating the King’s patronage of the Royal Mathematical School at Christ's Hospital in London.[17]  Unfinished at the time of Charles II’s death in 1685, the latter was altered to include a portrait of his successor, James II, enthroned and surrounded by roundel effigies of his deceased brother and their predecessor Edward VI.[18]

James II renewed Verrio’s position as the King’s ‘Chief and first painter’ and also appointed him ‘Keeper of the Great Garden at St James’s Park’, for a salary double that of court painter.[19]  Reputedly a keen gardener, the artist embraced this role with gusto, turning the area into “a very delicious paradise”.[20]  A sociable man with a penchant for carousing, as testified by contemporaries since his days in Paris, Verrio also joined the Society of Painters and, around 1689 the Society of London Virtuosi of St Luke.[21]  During this period, he also completed two portraits of James II and began mural paintings in the King’s Chapel at the Royal Hospital, Chelsea.[22]  The latter came to an abrupt halt in 1688, when the Glorious Revolution deposed the Catholic James and proclaimed William of Orange King William III.[23]  The new sovereign’s staunch opposition to Catholicism saw Verrio’s royal appointments revoked, which forced him to rely once more on private aristocratic patrons.[24]

For John Cecil, 5th Earl of Exeter, Verrio painted the State Rooms at Burghley, a project today considered among his masterpieces and that occupied him for several years (1686-1697), requiring the support of many assistants.[25]  Meanwhile, for the Earl’s brother-in-law, William Cavendish, 4th Earl of Devonshire, Verrio executed a series of decorations at Chatsworth, including for the Great Stairs and the Great Chamber, a series of medallions in the Gallery, and the Chapel altarpiece (1691).[26]  It appears that by this date the painter’s wife had returned to France,[27]  perhaps disheartened by the growth of anti-Catholic sentiment in England, and he was free to indulge once again in a libertine lifestyle (provided marriage had ever stopped him in the first place). He became a member of Lord Exeter’s drinking club, the 'Honourable Order of Little Bedlam', and spent much of his earnings at The George public house in nearby Stamford.[28]

These extravagant habits, his predilection for drinking and the resulting quarrels with the Earl’s household seem to have precipitated Verrio’s departure from Burghley, which took place in 1697, not before an exasperate Exeter described him as an “impudent dogg”.[29]  The artist’s work at Burghley nevertheless received widespread praise, and possibly convinced William III to invite him back into royal service.[30]  By June 1699 Verrio was being paid for restoration work on his mural paintings at Windsor Castle, and by 1701 he had moved into lodgings – which included a personal cellar – at Hampton Court, where the King commissioned him to fresco the ceiling of the Banqueting House, followed by the Great and Little Bedchambers of the State Apartments and the Great Staircase.[31]  Before William’s accidental death in 1702, Verrio also executed for him copies of Raphael’s prized tapestry cartoons, which remain untraced after their sale at Christie’s in 1863.[32]

William’s successor Queen Anne initially continued to employ Verrio as court painter, both at Windsor Castle and Hampton Court, where in the Drawing Room he painted an apotheosis of the monarch against an open sky, with sumptuous trompe l’oeil marble columns and tapestries on the walls.[33]  Completed in 1705, this was the last royal commission Verrio received, as the same year the Queen gave instructions for him to be granted a pension and declined his entreaties for more work, perhaps on account of his declining eyesight, or because of the increasing toll the Windsor restoration was taking on royal coffers.[34]  The painter indeed suffered from cataracts, something that he is understood to be referring to in an inscription accompanying his Self-Portrait of circa 1705 (National Portrait Gallery, London), which reads “Here is Antonio, oh the poor Verrio”, a lament that scholar Cécile Brett has pointed out could also have been alluding to his forced retirement.[35] Far from having been unceremoniously dismissed, Verrio was in fact given lodgings at Hampton Court, a generous pension and several gifts, including “one fat doe”[36]  from the Queen’s estates and an “allowance of wine for his life”.[37]  He was unable to enjoy these privileges for long, as he died in June 1707, and was reportedly laid to rest at Hampton Court.[38]

Chiefly remembered for his contributions to the field of decorative mural painting in England, where he introduced the grandeur and the trompe l’oeil techniques of the Italian Baroque, Verrio also deserves recognition as a skilled portraitist, as evidenced by the present canvas. The likeness of Brigadier General Robert Killigrew is faithfully executed, with fresh, liquid brushwork that picks out details such as the vivid colour of his lips and the highlights in his pupils, all compounded by the soft treatment of his wig and the gleaming surface of his armour. His pose, with one arm akimbo, reprises the martial demeanour characteristic of military portraiture, and is counterbalanced by Verrio’s own, more informal stance. The painter wears a deep orange robe and a white cravat, similar to those sported in his National Portrait Gallery Self-Portrait, but differently to the latter, his head is covered by a dark brown wig. His right hand, resting on his left forearm, holds a set of brushes and a palette, within which is his signature. Significantly, the arrangement of the two figures recalls that of the sitters in Sir Anthony van Dyck’s Portrait of Thomas Killigrew and William, Lord Crofts(?) from 1638, a depiction of the Brigadier General’s father and, possibly, a member of his deceased first wife’s family (Royal Collection Trust).

With roots in mid-13th century Cornwall, the Killigrews were originally a landowning family, which through generations accumulated considerable wealth and political influence. During the reign of Queen Elizabeth I, William Killigrew (d. 1622) held parliamentary seats and became groom of the privy chamber, while his brother Henry (d. 1603) was posted as ambassador to Germany, France and, ultimately, Scotland.[39]  William’s career continued under the Stuarts, and his son Sir Robert Killigrew (d. 1633), became a longstanding member of Parliament, was ambassador to the United Provinces and then vice chamberlain to Queen Henrietta Maria.[40]  His heir, Thomas Killigrew (d. 1683)[41]  – immortalised in Van Dyck’s double portrait – started his career at court as a page to King Charles I and then made a name for himself as a playwright, having obtained the Queen’s favour. After the Civil War, he joined the Prince Regent’s exiled court in Paris and held a series of positions in his service, and in that of his brother James and other members of the royal circle, which saw him travel between the French capital, the Netherlands and Italy. During this time, he continued to write plays, some of which offer an insight into the life of the exiled court and its emissaries across Europe. While in The Hague, Killigrew was introduced to Charlotte van Hesse (d. 1715), the daughter of a member of the Prince of Orange’s court, whom he went on to marry in 1655. The same year, he was appointed captain in the service of the states general of Friesland, and subsequently moved his family to Maastricht, where his company was garrisoned and where his son Robert – depicted in the present portrait – was born in 1660.[42]   Later that year, the family moved back to England and Killigrew quickly established himself as a prominent member of the court of Charles II. The King, who had already named him groom of the bedchamber, also granted him one of only two licences to build a new playhouse, and in 1673 made him his master of the revels, a title that five years later would be bestowed upon his eldest son Charles (1657-1724/5), also a theatre manager. Killigrew’s wife Charlotte also became a member of the royal court when she was made keeper of the sweet coffer to the Queen, Catherine of Braganza, and first lady of the privy chamber, positions that arguably helped her successfully petition for a royal pension after the death of her husband in 1683, as he left the largest part of his estate to the children from his first marriage.

From a young age, Robert Killigrew therefore grew up in close proximity to the royal court, where Verrio – his senior by about twenty years – had been active since 1674. While nothing is known about the Brigadier General’s education, a payment for his services as page of honour to the King is recorded in June 1679 [43] , and the following decade he joined the army. In November 1687 he was a Cornet in the Queen’s Regiment of Horse, and one year later he rose to the rank of Captain in the Marquis de Miremont’s Regiment of Horse.[44]  In the same capacity, he joined the Royal Dragoons on 31 December 1688 [45], rising to the ranks of Major in February 1694 [46], Lieutenant-Colonel in April 1697, and Colonel by August 1704 [47]. That year his Dragoons regiment, the 8th (also known as the King’s Royal Irish Hussars), was deployed to Spain as part of the War of Spanish Succession (1701-14), in which the British fought on the side of the Hapsburg pretender to the Iberian throne against a Bourbon coalition that supported the claim of Philip, Duke of Anjou. Killigrew – who had been elevated to the rank of Brigadier General in July 1705 [48]  and in January 1706 was promoted to the command of his regiment [49] – was killed as part of the Battle of Almanza in April 1707, when the British and their allies were routed by the enemy. His brother Charles erected a plaque to his memory in Westminster Abbey, and another in the Church of St Mary Magdalene in Thornham Magna, part of the Thornham estate Charles’ wife Jemima Bokenham had inherited in 1681.[50]

Recent Verrio scholarship has suggested dating the present painting to circa 1705/06, on the basis that the artist, once retired from royal service, “embarked on a number of portraits”.[51]  As Killigrew was made Brigadier General in July 1705 and placed at the head of his regiment in January 1706 (see above), it appears highly likely our portrait was commissioned between those dates, and no later, as by January 1706 he was in Spain with his regiment, executing orders to garrison Tortosa.[52]  Letters he sent to his brother Charles from Alicante (19 September 1706) and Valencia (8 March 1707) confirm his presence in the Iberian peninsula up to his death.[53]  A proposal by Raffaele de Giorgi to date our portrait to c. 1688-98 [54] , roughly coinciding with Verrio’s tenure at Burghley – when he was arguably at the height of his artistic powers – is noteworthy given the superb quality of the present composition, and not implausible if we consider Verrio painted portraits at different stages of his career, not only during his retirement.[55]  However, Cécile Brett has convincingly underlined the features of the artist in the present canvas match his ageing appearance in the Self-Portrait of about 1705 in the National Portrait Gallery.

As to the links between the painter and Brigadier General Robert Killigrew, in addition to their close ties with the royal court, it is worth pointing out that the theatre, a field in which both Killigrew’s father and brother were active, may have played a role in the realisation of this portrait. In Paris, Verrio had formed a close friendship with dramatist Jean de Palaprat,[56]  who records how – immediately after his arrival in the city – the painter “became a great friend, comrade and companion to every excellent actor of the period” and to the celebrated playwright Molière.[57]  Given Verrio’s documented interest in the theatre and his equally attested sociable disposition, it appears likely that, once in London, he would have been drawn to local thespian circles, where he could have made the acquaintance of Thomas and Charles Killigrew. His work at Ashtead Park for Sir Robert Howard [58], a dramatist who at one point was a member of the King’s Company with Thomas Killigrew, strengthens this hypothesis. It has not been possible to verify whether the present portrait was commissioned from Verrio directly by Charles Killigrew, rather than by the Brigadier General himself, but the canvas was in the possession of Charles’ son, also named Charles Killigrew, at Thornham Hall by the time of the latter’s death in 1756.[59]  A mention of “Brigadiere Killigrew & Verrio the painter both in a peice of painting” in an entry for 1731 in George Vertue’s Notebooks unfortunately does not specify the picture’s whereabouts at the time.[60]

In his will, Charles Killigrew left his mother’s house to his godson, the Rev. Charles Tyrell, who the same year sold it to Sir John Major, Bt, of Bridlington, a wealthy iron merchant.[61]  As observed by Edmund Farrar, who in 1930 published a catalogue of the paintings at Thornham Hall, Tyrell must have left many of the Killigrew family portraits in situ [62], including that of the Brigadier General and Verrio. Later, Sir John Major’s eldest daughter Anne married John Henniker (d. 1724), who inherited his father-in-law’s baronetcy. Their son, also named John, was the heir to the Thornham estate, which was passed down in the Henniker-Major family until the costs of its upkeep led Charles Henry Chandos Henniker-Major (d. 1956), 6th Baron Henniker, to arrange for a sale of its contents, held by John D. Wood in May 1937. On that occasion, the present portrait was sold, and it subsequently entered the collection of Edward Croft-Murray (1907-1980). A noted British art historian and antiquarian, the latter’s Decorative Painting in England, 1537-1837 (1962) constitutes the first detailed study in the English language of Verrio’s activity at the court of Charles II and his successors.[63]

We are grateful to Emanuela Tarizzo and Cécile Brett for their assistance in cataloguing this painting.

Related Literature

Historical Record of the Eighth, or, the King’s Royal Irish Regiment of Hussars, London, 1844

C. Dalton, English Army Lists and Commission Registers 1661-1714, vols. II-V, London, 1904

W.A. Copinger, The manors of Suffolk; notes on their history and devolution, with some illustrations of the old manor houses, vol. III, Manchester, 1909

E. Croft-Murray, Decorative Painting in England, 1537-1837, London, 1962

C. Brett, “The Apotheosis of Queen Anne by Antonio Verrio (c1636–1707)”, The British Art Journal, Winter 2019/2020, Vol. 20, No. 3 (Winter 2019/2020), pp. 18-27

[1]  Brett, 2009/10, p. 6

[2] Brett, 2009/10, p. 4; for Verrio’s reputation, see also De Giorgi, 2009, pp. 87-88

[3]  Hémery ed., 2010, p. 34

[4]  Brett, 2009/10, p. 4

[5]  Brett, 2009/10, p. 7

[6]  Malliot, 1802, quoted in Hémery ed., 2010, p. 49

[7]  Hémery ed., pp. 49-55

[8]  Brett, 2009/10, p. 4

[9]  Brett, 2009/10, p. 6, footnote 28

[10] Brett, 2009/10, p. 6

[11] Brett, 2009/10, p. 6

[12] Brett, 2009/10, p. 6

[13] Brett, 2009/10, p. 6

[14] Brett, 2009/10, p. 7

[15] Brett, 2009/10, p. 7

[16] Brett, 2009/10, p. 7

[17] Brett, 2009/10, p. 8

[18] Brett, 2009/10, p. 8

[19] Brett, 2009/10, p. 9

[20] Brett, 2009/10, p. 9

[21] Brett, 2009/10, p. 9

[22] Brett, 2009/10, p. 9

[23] Brett, 2009/10, p. 10

[24] Brett, 2009/10, p. 10

[25] Brett, 2009/10, p. 10

[26] Brett, 2009/10, p. 10

[27] Brett, 2009/10, p. 10

[28] Brett, 2009/10, p. 10

[29] Brett, 2009/10, p. 10

[30] Brett, 2009/10, pp. 10-11

[31] Brett, 2009/10, pp. 11-12

[32] Brett, 2009/10, p. 13

[33] See Brett, 2019/20

[34] Brett, 2009/10, p. 14

[35] Brett, 2009/10, p. 14

[36] Brett, 2009/10, p. 14

[37] James Thornhill quoted in Brett, 2009/10, p. 14

[38] Brett, 2009/10, p. 14; burial records for the period 1677 to 1720 are missing, see Brett, 2009/10, p. 17, footnote 126

[39] For William Killigrew, see under “Killigrew, Sir Robert (1579/90-1633)” and for Henry Killigrew see “Killigrew, Sir Henry (1525x8-1603), in Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, vol. 31, Oxford, 2004

[40] “Killigrew, Sir Robert (1579/90-1633)” in Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, vol. 31, Oxford, 2004

[41] “Killigrew, Thomas (1612-1683)” in Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, vol. 31, Oxford, 2004

[42] See under “Killigrew, Charles (1655-1724/5)” in Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, vol. 31, Oxford, 2004

[43] 'Entry Book: June 1679, 11-20', in Calendar of Treasury Books, Volume 6, 1679-1680, London, 1913, p. 91

[44] Dalton, vol. II, 1904, pp. 121 and 165

[45] Dalton, vol. II, 1904, p. 165, footnote 6

[46] Dalton, vol. III, 1904, p. 356

[47] Dalton, vol. V, 1904, pp. 34 and 111

[48] Dalton, vol. V, 1904, p. 17

[49] Historical Record of the Eighth, or, the King’s Royal Irish Regiment of Hussars, London, 1844, p. 102

[50] Copinger, vol. III, 1909, p. 314

[51] Brett, 2009/10 p. 14; see also Hémery ed., 2010, p. 122

[52] A. Parnell, The war of the succession in Spain during the reign of Queen Anne 1702-1711, London, 1905, p. 142; P. Woodruff, Colonel of Dragoons, London, 1951, p. 97

[53] G.C. Boase and W. Prideaux Courtney, Bibliotheca Cornubiensis, a Catalogue of the Writings, both Manuscript and Printed, of Cornishmen, and of Works relating to the County of Cornwall, vol. I, London, 1874, p. 293

[54] De Giorgi, 2009, p. 209

[55] Portrait of King Charles II, 1684, The Royal Collection; Portrait of King James II giving audience to the governors, masters, boys and girls at Christ’s Hospital, c. 1682-88; Portrait of Col. the Hon. Sackville Tufton, c. 1685-1687, Abbot Hall Gallery, Kendall

[56] Hémery ed., p. 49

[57] Quoted in De Giorgi, 2009, p. 87

[58] Verrio’s decorations for walls and ceilings at Ashtead Park, carried out before 1684, were destroyed around 1790, see Croft-Murray, 1962, p. 236

[59] Charles and Jemima’s third son, Charles, inherited the estate at Thornham Hall, see under “Killigrew, Charles (1655-1724/5)” in Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, vol. 31, Oxford, 2004

[60] Vertue, 1936, p. 16

[61] Copinger, vol. III, 1909, p. 314

[62] Farrer, 1930, p. vi; as part of the sale, Tyrell “seems to have left a collection of fourteen Killigrew family portraits at Thornham” see G. Ashton, Catalogue of paintings at the Theatre Museum, London, 1992, p. 4

[63] Croft-Murray, 1962, vol. 1, pp. 236-242