Artist

(b. ca. 1540, d. 1596, London)

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Details

English painter. Nothing is known of Gower's training but he was descended from a Yorkshire gentry family. He was unusual among artists of the day in being of the gentry, bearing arms as grandson of Sir John of Stettenham in Yorkshire. Four portraits, inscribed and dated 1573, show that he was by then an accomplished artist, established in London and commanding the patronage of wealthy and well-connected sitters. Sir Thomas Kytson and Lady Kytson (both London, Tate) are in oil on panel, and Sir Francis Willoughby and Lady Willoughby (both Lord Middleton private collection) on canvas; both ladies are elaborately dressed. In 1581 he was appointed Serjeant Painter to Queen Elizabeth, the premier royal post for an artist, but one whose duties generally involved the control of applied and decorative painting for the monarch. In 1584 a patent was drafted that would have granted Gower the monopoly of all painted and engraved portraits of the Queen (while allowing another painter, Nicholas Hilliard the monopoly of her portraits in miniature) but it is not clear whether this was ever enacted. Nevertheless, Gower seems to have been one of the most fashionable portraitists of the 1570s and 1580s. The artist's work is recognizable by its bold, clear-cut style and warmth of palette, the strongly modelled features and prominent eyes of the sitters, and plain backgrounds often enriched with coats of arms; in later portraits the face becomes an expressionless mask, a motif in the overall design. //

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Category	Artists
Artists by letter	G
Artist nationality	English