Katherine Ashe, Mrs William Windham I (1652-1729)
Sir Peter Lely (Soest 1618 – London 1680)
Category
Art / Oil paintings
Date
1669 - 1673 - 1680
Materials
Oil on canvas
Measurements
1420 x 1020 mm
Order this imageCollection
Felbrigg, Norfolk
NT 1401173
Caption
The sitter described this portrait and that of her husband, William (also at Felbrigg), as: “my dear Husbands picture & mine by Sr P Lilly”, when she bequeathed them to their son, Ashe, on his marriage in 1709. However, this picture is only partly by Lely himself, and it is based on a portrait of Mary of Modena that he had painted shortly after her marriage to James (II), Duke of York, in 1673 (now in the Ranger’s House, Blackheath). Katherine was the eldest daughter of Sir Joseph Ashe. A devoted wife, mother, and grandmother, her letters give a vivid picture of her management of Felbrigg and of her family.
Summary
Oil painting on canvas, Katherine Ashe, Mrs William Windham I (1652-1729) by Sir Peter Lely (Soest 1618 – London 1680) and Studio, circa 1669 Three quarter length view turned to her left, wearing a brown wrap and violet bodice before a background of trees. To her right is a small tree in a pot behind a parapet from which she plucks a flower. The eldest daughter of Sir Joseph Ashe and Mary Wilson and sister of Mary Ashe, Viscountess Townshend. Lely took the pose from a portrait of Mary of Modena he had painted shortly after her marriage to James (II) Duke of York in 1673, just changing the face.
Provenance
Part of the Windham Collection. The hall and contents were bequeathed to the National Trust in 1969 by Robert Wyndham Ketton-Cremer (1906-1969)
Makers and roles
Sir Peter Lely (Soest 1618 – London 1680), artist