Lady Lucy Percy, Countess of Carlisle (1599 - 1660)
after Sir Anthony Van Dyck (Antwerp 1599 - London 1641)
Category
Art / Oil paintings
Date
circa 1635 - 1645
Materials
Oil on canvas
Measurements
1300 x 1035 mm
Place of origin
England
Order this imageCollection
Ham House, Surrey
NT 1139954
Summary
Oil painting on canvas, Lady Lucy Percy, Countess of Carlisle (1599 - 1660), after Sir Anthony Van Dyck (Antwerp 1599 - London 1641), circa 1635.45. A three-quarter-length portrait, turned to the left, gazing at the spectator, standing beside a fountain on the left, formed of a gaping mouth of a fish which is being ridden by a cupid, the water falls into a large stone basin, the fingers of her right hand are touching the water in the basin. She has tightly curled brown hair dressed with a crown of flowers and wears a single-strand pearl necklet. She is wearing a gold off the shoulder dress over a white chemise with a fur scarf over her left shoulder fastened at the waist with a belt of jewels. Trees behind the fountain on the left and a distant horizon with cloudy sky on the right. Lady Lucy Percy, Countess of Carlisle (1599-1660). Daughter of Henry Percy, 9th Earl of Northumberland (1564-1632). Married the 1st Earl of Carlisle in 1617 (he died in 1636). She was a close friend of Henrietta Maria and was deeply admired by Thomas Wentworth, 1st Earl of Strafford (1593-1641) whose friendship for her gave rise to scandal. An intelligent, politically minded but dangerous lady; 'active and tempestuous' and 'a very pernicious instrument'. During the Commonwealth she was a neighbour of Lady Dysart at Petersham, where, according to a contemporary 'she enjoyed herself more in this Retiredness than in all her former Vanaties'
Provenance
Acquired in 1948 by HM Government when Sir Lyonel, 4th Bt (1854 – 1952) and Sir Cecil Tollemache, 5th Bt (1886 – 1969) presented Ham House to the National Trust, and entrusted to the care of the Victoria & Albert Museum, until 1990, when returned to the care of the National Trust, and to which ownership was transferred in 2002
Credit line
Ham House, The Dysart Collection (purchased by HM Government in 1948 and transferred to the National Trust in 2002)
Makers and roles
after Sir Anthony Van Dyck (Antwerp 1599 - London 1641), artist