JOHN GREENHILL (1649--1676) was the most celebrated of Lely's pupils. ROBERT STREATER (1624--1680) was made Serjeant-Painter to Charles II., and painted landscapes and historic works. His work still survives in the Theatre at Oxford, but we cannot echo the praise accorded to it by a rhymester who says--
"That future ages must confess they owe To Streater more than Michael Angelo."
That most delightful of gossips, Samuel Pepys, has much to say about art, of which he was no mean critic. Writing on February 1st, 1688, Pepys said: "I was carried to Mr. Streater's, the famous history-painter, whom I have often heard of, but did never see him before; and there I found him and Dr. Wren and several virtuosos, looking upon the paintings which he is making for the new Theatre at Oxford; and indeed they look as if they would be very fine, and the rest think better than those of Rubens in the Banqueting-house at Whitehall, but I do not fully think so. But they will certainly be very noble; and I am mightily pleased to have the fortune to see this man and his work, which is very famous, and he is a very civil little man, and lame, but lives very handsomely."
SAMUEL COOPER (1609--1672) was a miniature painter of a high order, whose art attested the influence of Van Dyck; the Duke of Buccleuch has the two famous unfinished portraits of the Protector by him, and a galaxy of other works of this class. Pepys, speaking of a portrait-painter named JOHN HAYLS, of whom he thought highly, said: "He has also persuaded me to have Cooper draw my wife's picture, which though it cost over £30, yet I will have it done." He called Cooper "a limner in little," and referred to him several times in his Diary. On the death of Sir Peter Lely, another foreigner became the popular painter of the Court. This was--
Sir GODFREY KNELLER (1648--1723), a native of Lübeck, who came to the Court of Charles II. in 1674, and maintaining his popularity during the reign of James II., William III., and Anne, lived to paint the portrait of _George I._ Kneller's works are chiefly portraits. Of these the famous Kit-Kat series of likenesses of distinguished men is invaluable. His portrait of his fellow-countryman, _Grinling Gibbons_, is one of his best paintings. He was the fashionable painter of the age, and kings and fine ladies, wits and statesmen, are embodied in his art. Dryden was amongst his sitters, and the poet has left the following praises of the painter:--