Nymphs by a Fountain

Nymphs by a Fountain by the Flemish artist Peter Lely (1618-80) is a rare example of the artist’s early explorations into lyrical, narrative painting. Lely painted it in the years following his arrival in England – before he began to focus his career almost exclusively on portraiture. Drawing loosely from classical mythology, rather than from one particular story, this painting depicts five nymphs abandoned to sleep. Lely exhibits his ability to depict confidently bodies in the round, from all angles, and in various states of undress. Lying upon swathes of satin, the softly-rendered slumbering nymphs contrast with the tumbling stone putti (or winged infants) playing with a dolphin at the fountainhead. The nymphs are constructed from separate studies of life models which Lely would have made in the studio, this fragmentary process accounting for their slightly awkward assembly. With the figure in the foreground, their back to the viewer, Lely may be making an erudite reference to a then famous ancient sculpture called Sleeping Hermaphroditus (today in the Louvre Museum, Paris). Hermaphroditus was the son of the ancient Greek gods Hermes and Aphrodite. Born male, his body was later fused with the female nymph Salamacis to create a body that might be perceived as both 'male' and 'female'. Today, this figure might be referred to as intersex, the term used to refer to individuals whose biological sex characteristics at birth do not typically match societal expectations for either sex. 

Hailing from Soest in Germany, and later training in the Dutch city of Haarlem, Lely arrived in England around 1643 where he embarked on an extraordinary career. He became best known for his flattering portraits of the aristocracy, having effectively harnessed this lucrative area of the English art market. Following the restoration of the monarchy, Lely was knighted and made Principal Painter to King Charles II (1630-85) in 1661, a post he held until his death at his easel in his Covent Garden studio. London in the mid-seventeenth century was one of the best places to see Italian Renaissance painting, something which was not lost on Lely. The idyllic pastoral setting, the large format and the rich, shimmering colours found in Nymphs by a Fountain attest to Lely's exposure to the work of sixteenth-century Venetian artists such as Titian (active c. 1506 – d. 1576) and Giorgione (1473/4?-1510) in the collection of King Charles I (1600-49). Close visual connections can also be seen between Nymphs by a Fountain and the Flemish artist Anthony van Dyck’s (1599-1641) Cupid and Psyche (Royal Collection, London), which was owned by Lely.