Elizabeth Alington, Lady Seymour of Trowbridge (c.1632-1691)
Sir Peter Lely (Soest 1618 – London 1680)
Category
Art / Oil paintings
Date
circa 1663 - 1665
Materials
Oil on canvas
Measurements
1219 x 991 mm (48 x 39 in)
Order this imageCollection
Petworth House and Park, West Sussex
NT 486272
Caption
Elizabeth Alington was the daughter of William Alington, 1st Lord Alington of Killard and Elizabeth Tollemache. Her first husband, whom she married in 1654, as his second wife, was Charles, 2nd Lord Seymour of Trowbridge. She married as her second husband, Sir John Ernle, Chancellor of the Exchequer, in 1672. She was the mother of the 5th Duke of Somerset and Charles Seymour, 6th Duke of Somerset (1662-1748) by her first husband, the 3rd and 4th Dukes having died without issue. The bust of a boy behind her is presumably intended to represent the future 5th Duke. Portraits supposedly of the sitter’s mother, Lady Alington, painted by Lely in the 1650s (but much restored), and of her own first husband, Charles, 2nd Lord Seymour, by Soest, are at Syon House, in the Oak Passage.
Summary
Oil painting on canvas, Elizabeth Alington, Lady Seymour of Trowbridge (1632 - 1691) by Sir Peter Lely (Soest 1618 - London 1680), circa 1663/65. A three-quarter-length portrait, standing, three-quarters left, wearing a blue dress with a dark grey scarf against a gold hanging at left and a bust at right.
Provenance
In 1764 inventory - made after the death of Charles Wyndham, 2nd Earl of Egremont (1710-1763); by descent, until the death in 1952 of the 3rd Lord Leconfield, who had given Petworth to the National Trust in 1947, and whose nephew and heir, John Wyndham, 6th Lord Leconfield and 1st Lord Egremont (1920-72) arranged for the acceptance of the major portion of the collections at Petworth in lieu of death duties (the first ever such arrangement) in 1956 by HMTreasury and transferred in 1990
Marks and inscriptions
Elizabeth Allington/Lady Seymour
Makers and roles
Sir Peter Lely (Soest 1618 – London 1680), artist