Portrait of Captain Thomas Lee - Geeraerts, Marcus, the younger (Flemish painter, 1561-1635, active in England) (My University, 2001)
Gheeraerts II was a Bruges-born painter who came from a major dynasty of Netherlandish painters, settling in London after 1560. It is believed his work was highly influential in Elizabethan London and he was possibly among the first to use canvas as a painting support to entirely new effect. The present portrait depicts Captain Thomas Lee, an English army captain, who served under Queen Elizabeth I and spent most of his career in Ireland during the Tudor conquest of that country. The painter employed a variety of visual devices to illustrate the sitter's political purpose, including the use of costume, oak tree and references to Roman hero Scaevola.
Keywords: Portrait; Lee, Thomas; Military; Gentry; Upper class; Costume; Scaevola, Gaius Mucius; Pistols; Oak; Elizabethan