One of these many gifted men, Andre Beauneveu of Valenciennes, a good sculptor and a painter of some exquisite miniatures, is sometimes supposed to have been the painter of our picture of Richard II.

In the absence of any signature or any definite record it is impossible to say who painted it, but it is unnecessary to assume that it must have been painted by a French artist, since we know that at the end of the fourteenth century there were very good painters in England.
It was by no means an exception not to sign a picture in those days, for the artists had not begun to think of themselves as individuals entitled to public fame.

Hand-workers of the fourteenth century mostly belonged to a corporation or guild composed of all the other workers at the same trade in the same town, and to this rule artists were no exception.

Each man received a recognized price for his work, and the officers of the guild saw to it that he obtained that price and that he worked with good and durable materials.

There were certain advantages in this, but it involved some loss of freedom in the artist, since all had to conform to the rules of the guild.