Henry Jermyn, 1st Earl of St Albans, KG (d.1684), in Garter Robes
Sir Peter Lely (Soest 1618 – London 1680)
Category
Art / Oil paintings
Date
1674 (inscribed and dated)
Materials
Oil on canvas
Measurements
2280 x 1474 mm
Order this imageCollection
Kedleston Hall, Derbyshire
NT 108820
Summary
Oil painting on canvas, Henry Jermyn, 1st Earl of St Albans, KG (d.1684) in Garter Robes by Sir Peter Lely (Soest 1618 – London 1680), inscribed below left in yellow [Wharton] script: Henry German Earle of / St Albans Lord Chamberlaine / 1674. A full-length portrait in full Garter robes, holding his staff in his right hand, turned slightly to left, head turned slightly to spectator, his left hand, down by his side, holding his sword belt, his right leg, slightly to left and turned out, his weight resting on his left leg, with full-bottomed wig his Garter cloak drawn back to show his left arm; shoes with high-cube heel and large bows; pillar in background and a landscape with silhouette of a fountain and dusky sky. Henry Jermyn was the chief confidant of Queen Henrietta Maria in exile, and was lavishly rewarded at the Restoration. From 1671-74 he was Lord Chamberlain, whose wand of office he is shown with here. He planned St James's Square on part of the land he was granted in London, and Jermyn Street preserves his name. One of the group of Garter portraits by Lely acquired at Sir William Stanhope's sale in 1733, whose inscriptions also reveal them previously to have been in the celebrated collection of Philip, 4th Lord Wharton.
Provenance
Philip Wharton, 4th Lord Wharton (1613-1696), Winchendon; thence by descent to Philip, Duke of Wharton (1698 - 1731); by whom – or by whose executors – either sold (in the latter case, with the rest of his collection) to Sir Robert Walpole, or to directly Sir William Stanhope, whose seat, Eythrope, was next door to Wooburn (the Whartons’ other seat); acquired at Sir William Stanhope’s sale, Albermarle Street, April, 1733, lot 25 by Nathaniel Curzon, 4th Bt (1676 - 1758), possibly at Curzon's house in Brook St; recorded in Principal Dressing Room in 1769; bought with part of the contents of Kedleston with the aid of the National Heritage Memorial Fund in 1987 when the house and park were given to the National Trust by Francis Curzon, 3rd Viscount Scarsdale (1924-2000)
Credit line
Kedleston Hall, The Scarsdale Collection (acquired with the help of the National Heritage Memorial Fund and transferred to The National Trust in 1987)
Marks and inscriptions
signature - painted - bottom rhs of canvas - gold text - p. m. Lilly
Makers and roles
Sir Peter Lely (Soest 1618 – London 1680), artist