Riley (or Ryley), John (1646-1691)

English portrait painter. Charles II, James II, and Samuel Pepys were among his sitters and, with Godfrey Kneller, he became court painter to William and Mary.

He occasionally painted minor domestic members of the royal household, and his portrait of Charles II was candid enough to have evoked - it is said - the royal comment: ‘Odd's fish, I'm an ugly fellow.’ His works may be seen in the National Portrait Gallery, London, in the Royal Collection, and in Oxford.