Gerlach Flicke

Gerlach Flicke, also Garlick or Garlicke Flicke (* in Osnabrück, † January / February 1558 in London ) was a German painter of the Tudor period. He had his creative period in the generation after Hans Holbein the Younger and was like this in England worked.

Life and work

Little is known about the life Gerlach Flickes. From the fact that he referred to two signed portraits as Germans and that he bequeathed his property to a domestic worker in Osnabrück in his will, it is generally concluded that he was born in this city. His birth date is however not known. Since 1545/46 his work is occupied as a portrait painter in England. In 1554 a stay in prison ( probably in the Tower of London ) is documented, where his self-portrait (as diptych together with the also imprisoned pirate Henry strand Wish) was born. This painting is considered the first oil painting Selbstportait in England. The reason for Flickes prison and its duration are not known. Maybe he was a victim of the persecutions of Protestants under Queen Mary I.. , The most famous painting in Flickes is certainly the portrait of Thomas Cranmer, Archbishop of Canterbury from 1545., The fact that Flicke could portray such a prominent cleric, suggests that he was highly regarded as an artist. Another, signed in 1547 portrait painting shows an unknown nobleman. At least three other portraits were painted by Flicke that I ( now in the Durham Cathedral Library) documented the Queen Mary, one of Thomas Howard, 3rd Duke of Norfolk and the portrait of Thomas, the first Lord Darcy of Chiche ( last lost in Irnham Hall in Lincolnshire, from 1854 in 1848 ). The few surviving images of Flicke show a high artistic level, which is that of Hans Holbein the Younger comparable.

• Portrait of Thomas Cranmer, Archbishop of Canterbury ( 1545 ), now the National Portrait Gallery, London
• Portrait of an unknown nobleman, possibly of the 13th Lord Grey of Wilton (ca. 1547), now the National Gallery of Scotland, Edinburgh