John Poulett, first Earl Poulett
John Closterman
ca. 1682
Although the date of Lord Poulett's birth is not known, his parents married in July 1667, and in 1679 John Poulett, 1st Earl Poulett, was described as a "weak child." Evidently he suffered from scrofula, or "the King's Evil," a form of tuberculosis that affects the lymph nodes in the neck, but he survived infancy and lived a long, quiet life at his country seat, Hinton St. George in Somerset. Judging from his appearance in this hunting portrait, John must have been around twelve to fourteen years of age, which means the picture cannot have been painted before 1680. This was the year in which he inherited his father's barony, which may have been the occasion that the portrait was commissioned to mark.
Yale Center for British Art, New Haven · Image: Yale Center for British Art, Public domain · Text: Yale Center for British Art, CC0