# Portrait of Captain Thomas Lee [View the canonical artwork record]() ## Artwork - Artist: [GHEERAERTS, Marcus the Younger]() - Date: 1551-1600 - Technique: Oil on canvas, 231 x 151 cm ## Commentary Thomas Lee \(1551-1601\) was related to Sir Henry Lee \(1533-1611\), Elizabeth I's Champion and creator of imagery for her annual Accession Day celebrations. Henry may have helped devise the complex symbolism of this portrait. Thomas served in the English colonial forces in Ireland. His bare legs are a fantasy evocation both of the dress of an Irish soldier, and that of a Roman hero. Thomas was suspected of treachery to Elizabeth and visited London in 1594 partly to refute this. The Latin inscription in the tree refers to the Roman Mucius Scaevola, who stayed true to Rome even when among its enemies. Lee implies that he too is faithful. ## Related artworks - [Anne, Lady Pope with her Children]() - [Catherine Killigrew, Lady Jermyn]() - [Frances Earle and Her Children]() - [Henry, Prince of Wales]() - [Portrait of a Lady]() - [Portrait of a Woman]() - [Portrait of a Woman]() - [Portrait of Ellen Maurice]() - [Portrait of Frances Bell, Lady Dering]() - [Portrait of Lady Anne Ruhout]() - [Portrait of Mary Rogers, Lady Harington]() - [Portrait of Queen Elisabeth I]() ## Attribution [Web Gallery of Art]()