Peter Lely: A Lyrical Vision

I caught the very end of Peter Lely: A Lyrical Vision at the Courtauld today. I have seen plenty of his Windsor and Hampton court beauties, and his presence loomed large in Hampton court’s excellent The Wild, The Beautiful and the Damned earlier this year, so I am pleased to have seen some of his work that is not related to 17th century ladies.

This isn’t a large exhibition; like most of the Courtauld’s temporary exhibitions it is in the space at the top of the stairs. Size certainly is no indication of quality in art (and often makes exhibitions trials of endurance rather than inspirational journeys), so the Courtauld’s focussed and well-curated exhibitions work for me. It is sympathetically curated too; the works have room to breathe and the viewer can get close and personal. The information never descends into biography and calls up other related paintings (I was pleased at the mention of Van Dyke’s Cupid and Psyche, also shown at Hampton Court and very relevant to Lely’s outdoor nudes). My only slight note was that the Rape of Europa looks like it should be hung higher up because of the elongated torsos, rather than at eye level.

All these works are intended to add some nuance to Lely’s life and our experience of him. We do see more of Lely, but this doesn’t show a parallel or different artist. There are still plenty of silk curtains in the wilderness, Grecian urns and classical fountains, and ladies with no tops (and no lack of bottom). This does bring out some of Lely’s themes of voyeurism and pleasure of the senses, and I couldn’t escape the feeling of imminent danger or life on the edge of decay. The Rape of Europa is the narrative moment before the rape; a moment where there is sensual enjoyment of the handsome bull, almost foreplay. This seems to be a recurrent theme: a lad views nude, still sleeping girls; a satyr waits to ambush lovers; Bacchus and his child friends drink but do not yet suffer for their pleasure. We the viewer also act as the about to interrupt voyeur, again for some nude girls. Perhaps this is me projecting the decadence of the time but I keep getting the whiff of fruit about to turn. Even the gender-ambiguous shepherd lad with his shaft-like crook and recorder has a sensual, coming of age ambience through his swirling hair and luscious drapery.

The lack of finish of some of the paintings is a divergence of the normal stately home Lely. He is normally so slick that seeing freely painted landscaping is a bit of a surprise, but a pleasant one. There is an early picture of children that I found very affecting. It is two children, heads only, and very sweet with little of the sickly fermentation of some of his later work.

There is also a less colourful twin exhibition a few rooms on. This is of a tiny proportion of the drawings and prints collected by Lely but gives a wonderful flavour of both his practice for the hands of Beauties, and his reference for their drapes. Again, it is small but provides both knowledge and aesthetic pleasure- a decent summary of the Courtauld Gallery overall in my experience.