The portrait painter Sir Peter Lely (1618-1680), German born of a Dutch family and trained at Haarlem, spent most of his career in England, one of three foreign portraitists who dominated English painting in the 17th century. Settling in London around 1643, Lely followed in the footsteps of Sir Anthony Van Dyck to become Principal Painter to the King, appointed by Charles II after the Restoration of the monarchy in 1660.

While neither as subtle nor elegant a painter as Van Dyck, Lely, who in his time was described as “the best artist in England”, became known for his languorous court portraits such as the series of Windsor Beauties now in the Royal Collection. But Lely was also an avid art collector, accumulating an astonishing 10,000 drawings and prints by earlier and contemporary artists. He was the first artist in Britain to amass such a collection, yet his passion was to bankrupt him.

After his death Lely’s collection was dispersed, each artwork stamped by his executor with the monogram “PL”. Today, 50 survive in the Christ Church collection, with 32 of them in Christ Church Picture Gallery’s latest exhibition, Sir Peter Lely, Artist-collector of the Baroque.

It makes for an interesting and unusual exhibition: drawings by Parmigianino, Veronese, Zuccaro, Domenichino, Ligorio and other Italian 16th century artists, with no common theme except that Lely once desired them – and most likely used them as sources of inspiration. There’s a hint of Baroque in many, that sense of movement, energy, balance, and dramatic light and shadow. This was the age of the Baroque and you can see the taste of the times reflected in Lely’s choices for his collection. You can also see plausible influences on his painting. For instance, fulsome draperies often feature in Lely portraits, and here are examples that may well have fired him: the carefully worked drapery in the rolled up sleeve, the shadows and strong muscled arm of Piero Buonaccorsi’s Evangelist Standing, or the frieze of flowing limbs and drapes in the two drawings by Biagio Pupini.

There are also two exceptional loans from the Tate on show. The two oil paintings of musicians by Lely are a reciprocal loan for Christ Church’s Continence of Scipio currently in Tate Britain’s Van Dyck exhibition. They are certainly worth seeing as they are rarely on view even at the Tate, having come from store and not permanent display.

Additionally, to coincide with the Oxford Literary Festival, there’s a small selection of drawings of prophets, sibyls and such like that makes fanciful connections between art and literature. Prophets, Muses and Inspirations is on until April 19, whereas the Lely exhibition