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George Gower (born c. 1540 - died London 1596) was an English portrait painter who became Serjeant Painter
Serjeant Painter

The Serjeant Painter was an honorable and lucrative position with the British monarchy. It carried with it the prerogative of painting and gilding all of the King's residences, coaches, banners, etc....
 to Queen Elizabeth I
Elizabeth I of England

Elizabeth I was List of English monarchs and Queen of Ireland from 17 November 1558 until her death. Sometimes called The Virgin Queen, Gloriana, or Good Queen Bess, Elizabeth was the fifth and last monarch of the House of Tudor....
 in 1581.

le is known about his early life except that he was a grandson of Sir John Gower of Stettenham, Yorkshire
Yorkshire

Yorkshire is a Historic counties of England of northern England and the largest in Great Britain. Because of its great size, over time functions were increasingly undertaken by its subdivisions, which have been subject to History of local government in Yorkshire....
.

His earliest documented works are the two 1573 companion portraits of Sir Thomas Kytson and his wife Lady Kytson, now in the Tate Gallery
Tate Gallery

Tate is the United Kingdom's national museum of British and Modern Art, and is a network of four art galleries in England: Tate Britain , Tate Liverpool , Tate St Ives and Tate Modern , with a complementary website, Tate Online ....
 in London.

Gower painted a self-portrait
Self-portrait

A self-portrait is a representation of an artist, drawn, painted, photographed, or sculpted by the artist. Although self-portraits have been made by artists since the earliest times, it is not until the Early Renaissance in the mid 1400s that artists can be frequently identified depicting themselves as either the main subject, or as importa...
 in 1579 (right) that shows his coat of arms
Coat of arms

A coat of arms, more properly called an armorial achievement, armorial bearings or often just arms for short, in European tradition, is a design belonging to a particular person and used by them in a wide variety of ways....
 and his artist's tools of his trade.






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George Gower (born c. 1540 - died London 1596) was an English portrait painter who became Serjeant Painter
Serjeant Painter

The Serjeant Painter was an honorable and lucrative position with the British monarchy. It carried with it the prerogative of painting and gilding all of the King's residences, coaches, banners, etc....
 to Queen Elizabeth I
Elizabeth I of England

Elizabeth I was List of English monarchs and Queen of Ireland from 17 November 1558 until her death. Sometimes called The Virgin Queen, Gloriana, or Good Queen Bess, Elizabeth was the fifth and last monarch of the House of Tudor....
 in 1581.

Life

Little is known about his early life except that he was a grandson of Sir John Gower of Stettenham, Yorkshire
Yorkshire

Yorkshire is a Historic counties of England of northern England and the largest in Great Britain. Because of its great size, over time functions were increasingly undertaken by its subdivisions, which have been subject to History of local government in Yorkshire....
.

His earliest documented works are the two 1573 companion portraits of Sir Thomas Kytson and his wife Lady Kytson, now in the Tate Gallery
Tate Gallery

Tate is the United Kingdom's national museum of British and Modern Art, and is a network of four art galleries in England: Tate Britain , Tate Liverpool , Tate St Ives and Tate Modern , with a complementary website, Tate Online ....
 in London.

Gower painted a self-portrait
Self-portrait

A self-portrait is a representation of an artist, drawn, painted, photographed, or sculpted by the artist. Although self-portraits have been made by artists since the earliest times, it is not until the Early Renaissance in the mid 1400s that artists can be frequently identified depicting themselves as either the main subject, or as importa...
 in 1579 (right) that shows his coat of arms
Coat of arms

A coat of arms, more properly called an armorial achievement, armorial bearings or often just arms for short, in European tradition, is a design belonging to a particular person and used by them in a wide variety of ways....
 and his artist's tools of his trade. An allegorical
Allegory

Allegory is generally treated as a figure of rhetoric, but an allegory does not have to be expressed in language: it may be addressed to the eye, and is often found in realistic painting, sculpture or some other form of Mimesis, or representative art....
 device shows a balance
Balance

Balance may refer to:...
 with an artist's dividers
Dividers

A dividers, also known as a measuring compass, is a mathematics, Technical drawing or cartography instrument used to aid measurements of the length of irregular lines and of distances on Map....
 outweighing the family coat of arms, "a startling claim in England where a painter was still viewed as little more than an artisan."

Elizabeth I (armada Portrait)
Gower was appointed to the position of Serjeant Painter
Serjeant Painter

The Serjeant Painter was an honorable and lucrative position with the British monarchy. It carried with it the prerogative of painting and gilding all of the King's residences, coaches, banners, etc....
 to Queen Elizabeth in 1581. This allowed him to paint most of England’s aristocracy. The post also made him responsible for painted decoration at the royal residences, and on coaches and furniture. Among his works were a fountain (now destroyed) and the astronomical clock, both at Hampton Court Palace
Hampton Court Palace

Hampton Court Palace is a former English royal palace in the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames in south west London. The palace is located south west of Charing Cross and upstream of Central London on the River Thames....
. He also inspected portraits of the Queen by other artists prior to their official release.

Gower's best-known work is the version of the Armada Portrait
Armada Portrait

The Armada Portrait of Elizabeth I of England is the name of any of three surviving versions of an allegory panel painting depicting the Tudor dynasty queen surrounded by symbols of empire against a backdrop representing the defeat of the Spanish Armada in 1588....
 of Elizabeth now at Woburn Abbey
Woburn Abbey

Woburn Abbey, near Woburn, Bedfordshire, Bedfordshire, England, is the seat of the Duke of Bedford and the location of the Woburn Safari Park....
, painted to commemorate the 1588 defeat of the Spanish Armada
Spanish Armada

The Spanish Armada was the Habsburg Spain fleet that sailed against England under the command of the Alonso de Guzm?n El Bueno, 7th Duke of Medina Sidonia in 1588, leading to the Drake-Norris Expedition of 1589, also known as the English Armada....
. (A cut down version of this painting in the National Portrait Gallery (United Kingdom) is attributed to Gower; the "Drake" version is by a different hand.)


See also

  • Artists of the Tudor court
    Artists of the Tudor court

    The artists of the Tudor court are the Painting and Illuminated manuscript engaged by the monarchs of Kingdom of England Tudor dynasty and their courtiers between 1485 and 1603, from the reign of Henry VII of England to the death of Elizabeth I of England....
  • Portraiture of Elizabeth I
  • Serjeant Painter
    Serjeant Painter

    The Serjeant Painter was an honorable and lucrative position with the British monarchy. It carried with it the prerogative of painting and gilding all of the King's residences, coaches, banners, etc....