Portrait

Very wet overnight and in the morning. Walked up to and through the Portrait Gallery ..the older material is on the top floor. Liked the ruff as well as as the portraiture in this picture. Caption text below. 

In extra, the Library. Many books and periodicals in rather mixed condition, not in obvious categories, in glass cases. Cafe busy. 

Walked back through Queen St Gardens just as the rain was coming on again. 

"Tom Derry or Durie (active 1614)
by Marcus Gheeraerts the Younger oil on panel, painted in 1614.
Tom Derry was Anna of Denmark's fool or jester, employed to provide entertainment at her court. A so-called 'natural fool', that is, born with learning difficulties, Derry became a much-loved and prominent member of the queen's household. He had servants of his own and he moved to London with Anna in 1603.
The queen had Gheeraerts, an Anglo-Netherlandish artist, paint Derry in 1614, the same year in which he painted her own portrait. In this unusual composition, a magnificently dressed Derry offers a large hospitality cup of red wine to the viewer, as if we were important guests at a ceremonial event.
PG 1111 bequeathed by AW. Inglis"