Anne Villiers, Lady Dalkeith, later Countess of Morton (d. 1654)
manner of Sir Anthony Van Dyck (Antwerp 1599 - London 1641)
Category
Art / Oil paintings
Date
1630 - 1662
Materials
Oil on canvas
Measurements
1155 x 900 mm
Order this imageCollection
Penrhyn Castle, Gwynedd
NT 1421774
Summary
Oil painting on canvas, Anne Villiers, Lady Dalkeith, later Countess of Morton (d. 1654), manner of Sir Anthony Van Dyck (Antwerp 1599 - London 1641). The sitter was previously called Lady Ann Keith, Countess of Morton (d.1648) and catalogued as by Sir Peter Lely (Soest 1618 – London 1680). A half-length portrait of the niece of the 1st Duke of Buckingham and sister of his nephew, Sir William Villiers, 2nd Viscount Grandison (also a Van Dyck sitter). She is dressed in red silk with brunette curled hair, standing behind a parapet, in front of a plain stone wall and a landscape on the left; her left hand resting beside a pair of roses and fur stole her left shoulder. She was married in 1627 to Robert, 8th Earl of Morton, known as 'Lord Dalkeith', until he succeeded his father in 1648. They had two sons: the 9th Earl of Morton, and Robert (d.1661), Master of Horse to 'Minette', and two daughters: Anne, Countess Marischal and Margaret, Lady Macdonald of Sleat. She was widowed in 1649. The prime version of this painting is believed to be lost but a seventeenth-century engraving made after it by Pierre Lombart (1612/13-1682) is in the National Portrait Gallery archive collection. It is a similar composition to a portrait of Mary Hill, Lady Killigrew of 1638 at Tate Britain.
Provenance
Bought by Alice Douglas-Pennant (c.1863 - 1939) who knew the engraving; thence by descent to Hugh Napier Douglas Pennant, 4th Baron Penrhyn of Llangedai (1894 – 1949), who left Penryhn and its estates to his niece, Lady Janet Marcia Rose Pelham (1923 - 1997), who with her husband John Charles Harper, thereupon assumed the name of Douglas Pennant, and in 1951 made over the castle and part of its contents in lieu of death-duties to HM Treasury (from the estate of Hugh, 4th Baron Penrhyn (1894 – 1949), which transferred them to the National Trust for display at Penrhyn Castle, 1961.
Credit line
Penrhyn Castle, The Douglas Pennant Collection (National Trust)
Makers and roles
manner of Sir Anthony Van Dyck (Antwerp 1599 - London 1641), artist previously catalogued as after Sir Peter Lely (Soest 1618 – London 1680), artist
References
Penrhyn Castle, Douglas-Pennant 1902 Hon. Alice Douglas-Pennant, Catalogue of the Picture at Penrhyn Castle and Mortimer House in 1901, 1902