Lady Dorothy Sydney, Countess of Sunderland (1617 – 1684)
after Sir Anthony Van Dyck (Antwerp 1599 - London 1641)
Category
Art / Oil paintings
Date
1640 - 1699
Materials
Oil on canvas
Measurements
1325 x 1065 mm
Place of origin
England
Order this imageCollection
Hardwick Hall, Derbyshire
NT 1129271
Caption
Lady Dorothy Sidney was the daughter of Robert Sidney, 2nd Earl of Leicester (1595-1677) and Lady Dorothy Percy. She was unsuccessfully courted at Penshurst (c.1634-38) by Edmund Waller (1606-87), who addressed her in his love poems as ‘La Sacharissa’. One of the poems celebrated her passionate friendship with the late Lady Anne Cavendish, Lady Anne Rich, whose portrait also hangs at Hardwick. In 1639 she married Henry, Baron Spencer (1620-43), who was created 1st Earl of Sunderland in 1643. Tragically he was killed in the same year at the Battle of Newbury. They had three children, the youngest of whom was born just after the Earl’s death, but died shortly afterwards. Lady Dorothy was remarried in 1652, to Robert Smyth of Bidborough in Kent. She survived her second husband by whom she had a son Robert, who became Governor of Dover Castle under Charles II. The original of this picture is generally accepted to be that at Petworth.
Summary
Oil painting on canvas, Lady Dorothy Sydney, Countess of Sunderland (1617 – 1684), after Sir Anthony van Dyck (Antwerp 1599 - London 1641). Three-quarter length portrait, profile to left, head facing, wearing a blue-green dress and gold shawl, pearl necklace and earrings, hef left hand on an urn, her right pointing.
Provenance
In Lady Louisa Cavendish 1860 catalogue of Hardwick Hall; thence by inheritance 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 (National Trust)
Marks and inscriptions
Sacharissa Lady Dorothy Sidney Married to the Earl of Sunderland who was killed at the Battle of Newberry
Makers and roles
after Sir Anthony Van Dyck (Antwerp 1599 - London 1641), artist