Eleanor ('Nell') Gwyn

Image credit: National Portrait Gallery, London

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'Pretty witty Nell', as Pepys called her, came to London as an orange-seller and rose to become one of the leading comic actresses of the day, and mistress to the King, Charles II. The playwright Dryden supplied her with a series of saucy, bustling parts, ideally suited to her talents. She had two sons by the King, the elder of whom was created Duke of St Albans, and she was said to have been remembered by Charles on his deathbed with the words 'Let not poor Nelly starve'. Pepys wrote in his diary, 'Up, it being a fine day: and after doing a little business in my chamber, I left my wife to go abroad... and saw pretty Nelly standing at her lodgings door in Drury-lane in her smock-sleeves and bodice.' 1 May 1667.

National Portrait Gallery, London

London

Title

Eleanor ('Nell') Gwyn

Date

c.1680

Medium

oil on canvas

Measurements

H 73.7 x W 63.2 cm

Accession number

2496

Acquisition method

Bequeathed by John Neale, 1931

Work type

Painting

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