Nathaniel Bacon
Illustration — A self-portrait of Bacon Sir Nathaniel Bacon, (1585 – 1627) was an English painter, landowner and horticulturist from Culford, Suffolk.
Also recorded as Sir Nathaniel Bacon · Nathaniel Bacon (Sir) · Nathaniel Bacon of Culford · Nathaniel I Bacon
Nathaniel Bacon

Nathaniel Bacon · Public domain
- Born
- 1585 · Bury St Edmunds.
- Died
- 1627
- Nationality
- United Kingdom
- Occupation
- painter
- Honours
- Knight of the Bath
VALÉORINE Encyclopedia
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Documentary summary
Illustration — A self-portrait of Bacon Sir Nathaniel Bacon, (1585 – 1627) was an English painter, landowner and horticulturist from Culford, Suffolk.
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Note VALÉORINE
Nathaniel Bacon (1585–1627) was a British painter. The painter was born in Bury St Edmunds. Nathaniel Bacon worked in Utrecht.
Works by the painter are held at Ashmolean Museum, National Portrait Gallery and Tate, among others. Nathaniel Bacon received Knight of the Bath.
Composed from admitted, traceable facts · 26 September 2026
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Documentary evidence
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wikidata · Q6969487
In this article
Art
Art
• Illustration — Cookmaid with Still Life of Vegetables and Fruit, by Nathaniel Bacon Bacon was particularly known for his kitchen and market scenes, dominated by still-life depictions of large vegetables and fruit, often accompanied by a buxom maid(identity of such unknown), the most well known being "The Cookmaid with Still Life of Vegetables and Fruit" (Tate Gallery London). This predilection for cook or market scenes is much more common among Dutch and Flemish painters, see for example Joachim Beuckelaer, or from a later generation, Pieter Cornelisz van Rijck, and Cornelis Jacobsz Delff. Only nine of Bacon's paintings were thought to survive until a portrait in Government House, Sydney was identified as a portrait of his wife, Jane, Lady Cornwallis. Bacon is credited with the first known British landscape, and also painted several self-portraits and a number of other portraits. He was created a Knight of the Bath in 1625, in honour of the Coronation of Charles I.
Personal life
Personal life
• Illustration — Attributed to Nathaniel Bacon, The artist's wife, Jane Bacon, Lady Cornwallis, née Meautys, ca. 1614-1617 He was the youngest son of Sir Nicholas Bacon, 1st Baronet, of Redgrave, who was the eldest half-brother of the leading politician and philosopher Francis Bacon (Lord Verulam), and so with connections to the political elite of late Elizabethan England. In 1613 or 1614, Bacon married Jane Cornwallis (née Meautys), the widow of Sir William Cornwallis, and mother of Frederick Cornwallis, 1st Baron Cornwallis. Bacon was created a Knight of the Bath early in 1626, on the coronation of Charles I. He died at age 42, probably from tuberculosis, and was buried on 1 July 1627 at Culford Hall (now rebuilt and renamed as Culford Park). Their daughter, Jane, aged three years, died that same October, and is buried alongside her father. The entries of their burials follow each other in the Culford Parish Burial Register. Their other daughter, Anne, married Sir Thomas Meautys in 1639. Anne, Lady Drury, was his sister, and it is believed he may have had some influence on the remarkable series of small paintings which make up Lady Drury's Closet. Bacon is commemorated at St Mary's Church, Culford with a monument by the sculptor Nicholas Stone. In June 1628 Bacon's brother Sir Edmund Bacon saw it being made at Stone's workshop in London's Long Acre, and noted "My brother's monument goes well forward, I saw it so much as is done, the day before I came own of town".
Identity and origins
Identity and origins
He was the child of Sir Nicholas Bacon, 1st Baronet, of Redgrave and Anne Butts. He married Jane Cornwallis. 2 children are recorded: Anne Bacon and Jane Bacon.
Identity
Identity
Nathaniel Bacon is recorded as having received Knight of the Bath. Bacon received Knight of the Bath.
Life and career
Dated record
Life and career
The full dated record · 2 entries
1585
Nathaniel Bacon born at Bury St Edmunds.
1627
Nathaniel Bacon died.
Notes from the source article
Cited by Wikipedia
Notes from the source article
These works are cited by the source article, in its own numbering. They are recorded as its citations, not as sources VALÉORINE has verified.
- 1.Hearn, Karen. Nathaniel Bacon : artist, gentleman and gardener. Tate. 7. 2005. 978-1-8543-7637-4.
- 2.Hearn, Karen. A newly identified portrait by Sir Nathaniel Bacon. The Burlington Magazine. 164. 1432. 645. July 2022.
- 3.Government House presents . Lady Jane Bacon!. Governor of New South Wales. 2022.
- 4.Hearn, Karen. Nathaniel Bacon : artist, gentleman and gardener. Tate. 10. 2005. 978-1-8543-7637-4.
- 5.'Landscape 1620s at the Ashmolean Museum Oxford
- 6.Funerary monument, St Mary's Church, Culford, Suffolk
- 7.'National Portrait Gallery'
- 8.Hearn, Karen. Nathaniel Bacon : artist, gentleman and gardener. Tate. 13–19. 2005. 978-1-8543-7637-4.
- 9.Concise Dictionary of National Biography
- 10.Suffolk Churches. St Mary, Culford.
- 11.Richard Griffin Baron Braybrooke, The Private Correspondence of Jane Lady Cornwallis; 1613-1644 (London, 1842), p. 194.
References
Citations
References
Each reference names the institution holding it, so a reader may go to the document itself.
reference work
Wikidata, structured authority record Q6969487: Nathaniel BaconWikimedia Foundation
Secondary witness
The Encyclopedia exists whether or not anything is for sale. Corrections are recorded rather than overwritten, and every version of this record is kept. Published 16 August 2026.
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