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Francis Le Neve, or Neave, (d.1681) was a London draper based on Cornhill, and was upholsterer to the King. He was apprenticed in London, having come to the capital from Norfolk and owned a small number of London warehouses and shops. In 1629, the year this portrait was painted, Le Neve was Master of the Merchant Taylors' Company.
The artist, Cornelius Johnson, was born in London in 1593 to Flemish and German parents. All his known works are portraits, ranging from miniatures to large group paintings. In 1631 he was appointed official painter to Charles I. Johnson left England in 1643, during the Civil War, and spent the rest of his career in the Netherlands. He died in 1661.
This portrait has recently been cleaned and restored by Carol Willoughby. The difference is stunning. Much detail has been revealed, especially of the lace collar and the Turkey carpet. The frame has also been restored by Jane Hall. The current frame is one of a set with the other paintings in the Court Room. At Strawberry Hill, the painting is believed to have been in a plain gold frame.
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The Company bought this painting at auction in 1894. One hundred years earlier it had belonged to Horace Walpole, and used to hang in the Gallery on the first floor of his ‘Gothic’ villa at Strawberry Hill. Walpole probably acquired this painting, and another one showing an Alderman Le Neve of Norwich, from a distant relative, Mrs Isabella Le Neve. Walpole and his father Sir Robert (the Prime Minister) lived in Arlington Street, Piccadilly. Mrs Le Neve lodged with them for the last 24 years of her life in very poor health. It seems likely that when she died in 1759, aged 73, she bequeathed these two paintings of her ancestors to the Walpoles.
An Exhibition at the Victoria and Albert Museum in 2010, 'Horace Walpole and Strawberry Hill', included a 1781 watercolour of the Gallery. Le Neve’s portrait, now at Merchant Taylors' Hall, appears in the drawing as the upper of the two paintings to the left of the Gallery fireplace.
