Portrait of Nell Gwyn (1650-1687), actress and mistress of King Charles II of England, three-quarter-length, seated, in a white chemise and a blue mantle, with a flowermantle, with a flower

A talented actress and a mistress of King Charles II, pretty, witty Nell (as she is described by the diarist Samuel Pepys) is a celebrated figure of Restoration England. She had her first success on stage aged fifteen, when she appeared as Cydaria in John Dryden's The Indian Emperor (1665). She was well suited to the vivacious feminine roles common in Restoration comedies and Dryden wrote several plays with roles specifically for her. Nells work brought her into contact with members of the highest echelons of society, and to the attention of the king, whose mistress she became in circa 1668. She bore Charles II two sons: Charles Beauclerk (1670-1726), created Duke of St Albans, and James Beauclerk (1671-1680), created Lord Beauclaire.

While many portraits have been associated with Nell Gwyn, this is one of the very few portrait types that has been positively identified as her in recent scholarship. Other examples include engravings by Valck (c. 1673) and Thompson (c. 1679), after two lost works by Lely (see C. MacLeod and J. Marciari Alexander, Painted Ladies: Women at the Court of Charles II, exhibition catalogue, London, National Portrait Gallery, 2001, pp. 166-71). The present facial type relates to a small group of portraits by Simon Verelst, including one in the National Portrait Gallery, London.