Biography

English painter. He may, like members of the de Critz and Gheeraerts families, have been a pupil of Lucas de Heere (c. 1534-c. 1584). He first appears in the pay of the Office of the Revels in 1576. In 1604 he became principal Picture Maker to Henry, Prince of Wales, and in 1607 he was appointed to the Office of Serjeant Painter, a post he held jointly with John de Critz. His works reflect the influence of the warm, brightly coloured and richly patterned miniatures of Nicholas Hilliard and firmly establish Peake within the iconic tradition of late Elizabethan painting.

Although his style was old-fashioned for the court of Prince Henry, in which were gathered some of the most brilliant figures of the age, Peake was given the task of promoting the image of the Prince as a dashing young warrior knight and variously depicted him at the hunt (Windsor Castle, Royal Collection, and New York, Metropolitan Museum of Art), displaying his swordsmanship (c. 1604-10; Turin, Palazzo Chiablese) and mounted on horseback (c. 1610; Parham House, W. Sussex).

The many repetitious portraits produced by studio assistants attest to the Prince's popularity and illustrate how Peake's artistic talents were dampened by mass production. In 1612, shortly before the Prince's death, Peake was replaced by Isaac Oliver as principal Picture Maker. The poorly drawn full-length of Prince Charles (later King Charles I) (c. 1613; Cambridge, University Library), with its lifeless pose and stereotyped composition, confirms the artist's reliance on a much repeated formula in his later years.