Possibly Anne Keighley, Mrs William Cavendish (d.1598/-99)
Marcus Gheeraerts the Younger (Bruges 1561/2 - London 1636)
Category
Art / Oil paintings
Date
1582 - 1636
Materials
Oil on canvas
Measurements
1016 x 832 mm (40 x 32 ¾ in)
Place of origin
England
Order this imageCollection
Hardwick Hall, Derbyshire
NT 1129106
Caption
The later inscription identifying the sitter as “Mary Cavendish, Countess of Shrewsbury” is the result of a confusion with another picture at Hardwick. It is possibly a portrait of the 1st Earl's first wife painted when she was plain “Mrs Anne Cavendishe” of whom there was a picture in the gallery in 1601. Anne Keighley was the daughter of Mary Carus, daughter of Sir Thomas Carus, one of the judges of the court of the Queen’s Bench. She married William Cavendish (only created Baron Cavendish and Earl of Devonshire after her death) three sons and three daughters. What might argue against the identification as Anne Keightly is the extraordinary wealth and ostentation of her jewellery, which could seem too much for a commoner to have worn. Significantly, however, her hair is left entirely unadorned, unlike that of the real Countess of Shrewsbury. Perhaps this betokens her status as a commoner.
Summary
Oil painting on canvas, Possibly Anne Keighley, Mrs William Cavendish (d.1598/-99) by Marcus Geeraerts, the younger (Bruges 1561/2 - London 1635/6), falsely inscribed top right in yellow script: Mary Cavendish / Css of Shrewsbury. A three-quarter length portrait, standing, turned slightly to the left, gazing at spectator, wearing a black dress composed as if of aglets decorated down her front with clasps of jewels, long five-row rope of pearls hanging to below waist, a fan in her proper left hand, a high pointed lace ruff; she wears a jewelled gold watch-case (?) at her waist and a six-armed diamond pendant over her left breast (as worn by the sitter in HHE.P.14: the only daughter of William Cavendish and Anne Keighley).
Provenance
Inventory of the contents of Hardwick Hall made in 1601 and attached to the will of Elizabeth Hardwick, Countess of Shrewsbury (c.1520–1608) as 'Mrs Ann Cavendishe';
Credit line
Hardwick Hall, The Devonshire Collection (acquired through the National Land Fund and transferred to The National Trust in 1959)
Makers and roles
Marcus Gheeraerts the Younger (Bruges 1561/2 - London 1636), artist
References
Boynton and Thornton 1971 Lindsay Boynton and Peter Thornton, ‘The Hardwick Inventories of 1601’, Journal of the Furniture History Society, Vol.VII, 1971, p. 29