Robert Streater

Robert Streater, self-portrait (engraving from Horace Walpole's Anecdotes of painting in England, vol. 2) Robert Streater (1621–1679) (also known as Streeter), was an English landscape, history, still-life and portrait artist, architectural painter, and etcher. He was Serjeant Painter to King Charles II, and decorated the ceiling of Christopher Wren's Sheldonian Theatre in Oxford.

Life and work

Streater was born in Covent Garden, London, and is said to have been the son of a painter, and to have received his instruction in painting and drawing from an artist called Du Moulin. He was very industrious, and attained considerable ability in his art, which was highly praised by his contemporaries. His style was founded on that of the Baroque Italian painters. He excelled in architectural and decorative paintings on a large scale, especially those in which perspective and a knowledge of foreshortening were required. He painted landscapes, especially topographical, with skill, and also still life. Sir William Sanderson, in his Graphice (1658), spoke of "Streter, who indeed is a compleat Master therein, as also in other Arts of Etching, Graving, and his works of Architecture and Perspective, not a line but is true to the Rules of Art and Symmetry". incomparably done by Mr. Streeter, but the figures are too near the eye" (the paintings were afterwards removed to Marden, near Godstone). Again in 1679 Evelyn noted that some of Streater's best paintings were at Mr. Boone's (or Bohun's) house, Lee Place, Blackheath. Streater's paintings in the ceiling of the Sheldonian Theatre at Oxford were eulogised by poetaster, Robert Whitehall (1625–85) in his poem 'Urania': and again, by a conservation studio, in November 2008. His panels of Moses and Aaron, painted for St Michael Cornhill, remain in the church, incorporated into the Victorian reredos.

Besides landscape, history, and still life, Streater also painted portraits. He etched a view of the Battle of Naseby, and designed some of the plates for Robert Stapleton's 'Juvenal'. Seven pictures by him, including five landscapes, were mentioned in a catalogue of James II's collection. Streater was a special favourite with Charles II, who made him serjeant-painter on his restoration to the throne. Streater's painting of Boscobel House, still in the British royal collection today, was recorded at Whitehall Palace in 1688 and is presumed to have been commissioned by Charles II. When Streater in his later years was suffering "from the stone", Charles II sent for a special surgeon from Paris to perform the necessary operation. Streater, however, died not long afterwards. in 1679.

He was succeeded as serjeant-painter by his son, Robert Streater Jr., at whose death, in 1711, Streater's books, prints, drawings, and pictures were sold at auction. He had a brother, Thomas Streater, who married a daughter, an artist herself, of Remigius Van Leemput. A self-portrait of Robert Streater was engraved for Horace Walpole's Anecdotes of Painting.

Henry Anderton (1630–1667) was a pupil of Streater.