Levina Teerlinc

1515 – 1576

Flemish painter, active in England. She was the eldest daughter of Simon Bening, the leading illuminator of the Ghent-Bruges school. She came to England c. 1545 with her husband, George Teerlinc of Blankenberge, and in 1546 was appointed royal 'paintrix' to Henry VIII, perhaps to help to fill the gap left by the recent deaths of Hans Holbein the Younger and Lucas Horenbout. Her annuity of £40 was larger than theirs. Teerlinc was employed as a gentlewoman in the royal households of both Mary I and Elizabeth I and her husband as a Gentleman Pensioner. The first reference to a portrait by her is during the reign of Edward VI. In October 1551 she was paid the large sum of £10 for visiting the future Elizabeth I 'to drawe owt her picture'. Her other documented works include paintings presented as gifts to the sovereign at the New Year; the first, for Queen Mary (1553), was 'a small picture of the Trinity'. Most of the gifts for Elizabeth I were portraits of the Queen herself, either alone or with 'other personnages'.

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