Called Dorothy Saunders, Lady Bridgeman (d.1697)
possibly Jacob Huysmans (Antwerp c.1630 – London 1696)
Category
Art / Oil paintings
Date
1650 - 1899
Materials
Oil on canvas
Measurements
1590 x 1240 x 45 mm
Place of origin
Great Britain
Order this imageCollection
Chirk Castle, Wrexham
NT 1171151
Summary
Oil painting on canvas, Called Dorothy Saunders, Lady Bridgeman (d.1697), possibly by Jacob Huysmans (Antwerp c.1630 – London 1696), and a later 19th century artist, inscribed in late 18th or early 19th century, with name of sitter, lower right: Lady Bridgeman. A three-quarter length portrait of a young woman, later to be the mother of Charlotte Bridgeman who married Thomas Myddelton IV in 1677, turned three-quarters to right, gazing to right, ringlet hanging over her right shoulder, wearing a single-strand pearl necklet, and a blue and gold décolleté dress with ermine lined sleeves and blue drapery, standing by a stone table on which lie some peonies, her right hand rests on the table and she is picking orange blossom with her left hand. She was the wife of Sir Orlando Bridgeman whom she married in 1648 and mother of Charlotte Bridgeman who was the second wife of Sir Thomas Myddelton, 2nd Bt. Most of the surface of this picture consists of 19th century restoration. If the ermine is part of the original, this cannot have been Lady Bridgeman.
Provenance
Probably by descent from the sitter's daughter, Charlotte Bridgeman, Lady Myddelton; in Chirk Castle house catalogue, c.1900, in Saloon. (Shown on diagrammatic hang [south wall, between left and centre windows] )and in manuscript picture list as “13. Lady Bridgeman.”; with some of the contents, in 1978, that were acquired along with Chirk Castle from Lt-Col Ririd Myddelton (1902–1988) by the National Land Fund and handed, on loan for 99 years, to the Secretary of State for Wales (In 1981 Chirk was transferred into the ownership of the National Trust); accepted by the Inland Revenue in lieu of Inheritance Tax from the estate of Lt-Colonel Ririd Myddelton (1902–1988) and transferred to the National Trust for display to the public at Chirk Castle in 1999
Credit line
Chirk Castle, The Myddelton Collection (National Trust)
Marks and inscriptions
Verso: Restored by J and W Vokins, St Jamess ... 1901 (label verso) Recto: Inscribed in late 18th or early 19th century, with name of sitter, lower right: Lady Bridgeman
Makers and roles
possibly Jacob Huysmans (Antwerp c.1630 – London 1696), artist previously catalogued as by British (English) School, artist