Henry Cary, 1st Viscount Falkland (c.1575 – 1633)
British (English) School
Category
Art / Oil paintings
Date
circa 1625
Materials
Oil on canvas
Measurements
1949 x 1212 mm (76 3/4 x 47 3/4 in)
Place of origin
England
Order this imageCollection
Hardwick Hall, Derbyshire
NT 1129172
Caption
Sir Henry Cary was the son of a Hertfordshire knight. He held various positions at Court, including Gentleman of the Bedchamber to James I, and Comptroller of the Household. In 1620 he was created Viscount Falkland in the Scottish peerage, although his tenure as Lord Deputy of Ireland, 1622-29 was largely unsuccessful. He married the heiress Elizabeth Tanfield in 1600, but separated from her in 1625, when he learnt of her conversion to Catholicism, which had actually happened some twenty years before. The landscape, seen through the window in the background, appears to show a town, a fort, and an estuary, with hanged men on gibbets by the shore, whose relevance is not yet clear.
Summary
Oil painting on canvas, Henry Cary, 1st Viscount Falkland (c.1575 – 1633), British (English) School, circa 1625. A full-length portrait of Henry Cary, 1st Viscount Falkland, to right standing on a on a black and white marble floor, wearing embroidered doublet, red breeches with embroidered strips, lace ruff and pink sash, [note that the colours of his clothes are also those of the standard], his proper gloved left hand by his sword, his right on his hip, his pike - whose steel top contains the figure of an armed man - leaning against the wall, left; through an arched opening, right, a battle scene with pikemen, standard bearer (white flag with pink horizontal stripes [barry argent and gules, a canton of the first - the canton would actually appear to contain the cross of St George - (Hawkesbury)] and infantry firing at the enemy, whose standard appears to have a single diagonal pink stripe on a white field. The landscape appears to show a town by, and a fort over, an estuary; hanged men on gibbets are by the shore. Son of a Hertfordshire knight, said to have studied at Oxford, he was a Gentleman of the Bedchamber to James I and Controller of the Household, 1617-1621. He was created Viscount Falkland in the Scottish peerage in 1620. He married to the heiress Elizabeth Tanfield in 1600, but separated from her when she apostasised. Their eleven children included Lucius Cary, 2nd Viscount Falkland, subject of the companion portrait to the original of Charles Cavendish.
Provenance
Burlington House; in 1845 Hardwick Hall handbook; thence by descent until, following the death of Edward William Spencer Cavendish, 10th Duke of Devonshire (1895 - 1950), Hardwick Hall and its contents were accepted by HM Treasury in part payment of death duties and transferred to the National Trust, in 1959
Credit line
Hardwick Hall, The Devonshire Collection (acquired through the National Land Fund and transferred to The National Trust in 1959)
Makers and roles
British (English) School, artist previously catalogued as attributed to Cornelius Johnson (London 1593 - Utrecht 1661), artist