Levina Teerlinc

Levina Teerlinc (b. Bruges, 1510–1520?; d. London, 23 June 1576) was a Flemish Renaissance miniaturist who served as a painter to the English court of Edward VI, Mary I and Elizabeth I.

Teerlinc was the second eldest of five sisters, Alexandra, Anne, Claire, and Barbara, the children of Simon Bening (sometimes written as Benninc or Benninck), the renowned illuminator of the Ghent-Bruges school. Bening probably trained his daughter as a manuscript painter. Teerlinc may have worked in her father’s workshop before her marriage.

In 1545, she moved with her husband, George Teerlinc of Blankenberge, to England. During her time in England, she then served as the royal painter to Henry VIII, whose royal painter, Hans Holbein the Younger, had recently died. Her annuity for this position was £40 - rather more than Holbein had been paid. Whilst she was a real celebrity, no works by her are currently known. Later she served as a gentlewoman in the royal households of both Mary I and Elizabeth I. In 1559 Teerlinc was appointed tutor in painting to the Kings daughter at the Spanish Court.

Her documented works include paintings presented as gifts to the sovereign at the New Year including an image of the Trinity for Mary I in 1553. However, Teerlinc is best known for her pivotal position in the rise of the portrait miniature. There is documentation that she created numerous portraits of Elizabeth I, both individual portraits and portraits of the sovereign with important court figures. She might have trained Nicholas Hilliard, by training a goldsmith, in the methods of miniature portraiture. Hilliard would go on to be the supreme miniature portraitist of the era.

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