Portrait of a Man, probably Sir Francis Godolphin

Cornelius Johnson, 1593–1661, British, Portrait of a Man, probably Sir Francis Godolphin, 1633

Creator:: Cornelius Johnson, 1593–1661
Title:: Portrait of a Man, probably Sir Francis Godolphin
Former Title(s):: Sir Francis Godolphin [1985, Cormack, YCBA Concise Catalogue]
Date:: 1633
Medium:: Oil on canvas
Dimensions:: 31 × 24 1/2 inches (78.7 × 62.2 cm), Frame: 37 3/8 × 31 5/8 inches (94.9 × 80.3 cm)
Inscription(s)/Marks/Lettering:: Signed and dated, lower left: "CJ Fecit | 1633"
Credit Line:: Yale Center for British Art, Paul Mellon Collection
Copyright Status:: Public Domain
Accession Number:: B1973.1.28
Classification:: Paintings
Collection:: Paintings and Sculpture
Link to Frame:: B1973.1.28FR
Subject Terms:: brocade | collar | costume | hair | Jacobean | lace | love-lock | man | portrait
Associated People:: Godolphin, William (1611–1636), brother of Sir Francis Godolphin (1605–1667), and a Governor of the Scilly Islands
Godolphin, Sir Francis (1605–1667), English nobleman, landowner, politician, and Member of Parliament
Access:: Not on view
Note: To make an appointment to see this work, please contact the Paintings and Sculpture department at ycba.paintings@yale.edu. Please visit the Paintings and Sculpture collections page on our website for more details.
Link:: https://collections.britishart.yale.edu/catalog/tms:128
Export:: XML
IIIF Manifest:: JSON

This portrait has been traditionally identified as the cavalier Sir Francis Godolphin (1605-1667) of Breage, Cornwall, but it may possibly be his younger brother, Sir William, who died in 1636. Jonson represents Godolphin wearing a "love-lock," a long single ringlet or lock of hair that was invariably worn over the left shoulder. The craze for love-locks in the court circle of Charles I attracted the disapproval of Puritans such as the pamphleteer William Prynne (1600-1669), whose The Unloveliness of Love-Lockes…prooving: The Wearing, and Nourishing of a Locke, or Love-locke, to be altogether unseemely, and unlawful unto Christians. In which there are likewise some passages…against Face-painting; the wearing of Suppostitous, Poudred, Frizled, or extraordinary long Haire appeared in London in 1628. Prynne was tried twice in Star Chamber for sedition.

Gallery label for installation of YCBA collection, 2005

Hair (The Tang Teaching Museum and Art Gallery, 2003-01-31 - 2004-01-18) [YCBA Objects in the Exhibition]

British Art at Yale, Apollo, v.105, April 1977, p. 240, fig. 6, N1 .A54 + OVERSIZE (YCBA) [YCBA]

Malcolm Cormack, Concise Catalogue of Paintings in the Yale Center for British Art, Yale Center for British Art, New Haven, CT, 1985, pp. 128-129, N590.2 A83 (YCBA) [YCBA]

Ellis Waterhouse, An Impressive Panorama of British Portraiture, Apollo, v. 105, no. 182, April 1977, p. 240, fig. 6, N1 A54 + (YCBA) Another copy of this article may be found in a separately bound and catalogued copy of this issue located on the Mellon Shelf [call number : N5220 M552 A7 1977 + (YCBA)] [YCBA]

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