Mrs Heneage
Sir Peter Lely (Soest 1618 – London 1680)
Category
Art / Oil paintings
Date
1670 - 1680
Materials
Oil on canvas
Measurements
1270 x 103 mm (50 x 39 ½ in)
Place of origin
England
Order this imageCollection
Ham House, Surrey
NT 1139788
Summary
Oil painting on canvas, Mrs Heneage by Sir Peter Lely (Soest 1618 – London 1680) and Studio, 1670/80. A three-quarter-length portrait of a young woman, seated on a rock, turned to the left, gazing at the spectator beneath a tree, her right arm leaning on a rock her left hand in her lap fingering her blue cloak, she had short tightly curled hair and wears a red dress with a brown scarf looped over her right shoulder and a long blue cloak behind and beneath her. Rocks and trees form the back and a distant view of the sky and horizon is on the right. The sitter was the mistress of William Cavendish, 2nd Duke of Devonshire (1673-1729) and mother of Henrietta Cavendish, Lady Huntingtower (d.1717/18), (who was her illegitimate daughter by Lord William Cavendish, later 2nd Duke of Devonshire). In 1706, Henrietta married Lionel Tollemache, Lord Huntingtower (1682-1712), eldest son of Lionel Tollemache, 3rd Earl of Dysart (1649-1727).
Provenance
In Ham House catalogue, around 1820 and thence by descent until acquired in 1948 by HM Government when Sir Lyonel, 4th Bt (1854 – 1952) and Sir Cecil Tollemache, 5th Bt (1886 – 1969) presented Ham House to the National Trust, and entrusted to the care of the Victoria & Albert Museum, until 1990, when returned to the care of the National Trust, and to which ownership was transferred in 2002
Credit line
Ham House, The Dysart Collection (purchased by HM Government in 1948 and transferred to the National Trust in 2002)
Makers and roles
Sir Peter Lely (Soest 1618 – London 1680), artist previously catalogued as attributed to Willem Wissing (Amsterdam 1656 - Burghley House 1687), artist
References
Whinney and Millar 1957 Margaret Whinney and Olivar Millar, English Art 1625 - 1714, 1957, p. 177-8