John Maitland, 2nd Earl and 1st Duke of Lauderdale PC, KG (1616-1682)
Edmund Ashfield (fl. c.1669 - c.1700)
Category
Art / Drawings and watercolours
Date
1674 (initialled and dated) - 1675
Materials
Pastel on paper
Measurements
305 mm (H); 245 mm (W)
Place of origin
England
Order this imageCollection
Ham House, Surrey
NT 1140137
Summary
Pastel on paper, John Maitland, 2nd Earl and 1st Duke of Lauderdale PC, KG (1616-1682) by Edmund Ashfield (fl. c.1669 - c.1700), initialled and dated above sitter’s left shoulder: E A F 1674/5. A head-and-shoulders portrait, turned to the left, head turned to face outwards wearing a long, light-coloured wig, pencil moustache, hazel eyes, and jowly and wearing a black jacket with a Garter star, and a knotted lace cravat. To the fury of the Maitland family, Lauderdale was found to have left the majority of his Scottish estates, and all his property in England, to his wife. A portrait of the Duke at Thirlstane Castle bears the inscription: "This man enjoy’d all the great offices under the Crown, but ruin’d his family by giving away to an old woman, Lady Dysart, his second wife, an immense Estate handed him through a series of prudent and able ancestors, which estate was the means of raising him to the Honours he enjoy’d.The Duke’s brother and successor as 3rd Earl of Lauderdale was further enraged when the unrepentant Duchess attempted to sue him for the payment of Lauderdale’s funeral expenses, which came to the enormous sum of £5,000."
Provenance
In 1683 Estimate of Pictures and thence by descent until 1948 acquired by His Majesty’s Government, when Sir Lyonel and Cecil Tollemache presented Ham House to the National Trust, and subsequently transferred to the Victoria & Albert Museum
Marks and inscriptions
E A F 1674/5
Makers and roles
Edmund Ashfield (fl. c.1669 - c.1700), artist
References
Prized Possessions: Dutch Paintings from National Trust Houses (exh. cat.), Holburne Museum, Bath 25 May - 16 Sep 2018; Mauritshuis, The Hague, 11 Oct 2018 - 6 Jan 2019; Petworth House, West Sussex, 26 Jan - 24 Mar 2019., p. 145