Lady Mary Herbert, Viscountess Montagu (1659-1744/5) and an unidentified attendant
François de Troy (Toulouse 1645 - Paris 1730)
Category
Art / Oil paintings
Date
circa 1685 - 1708
Materials
Oil on canvas
Measurements
1308 x 978 mm (51 ½ x 38½ in)
Place of origin
France
Order this imageCollection
Powis Castle and Garden, Powys
NT 1180944
Caption
Lady Mary Herbert was the eldest daughter of William, 1st Marquess of Powis. She married three times: firstly to the Hon. Richard Molyneux; secondly to Francis Browne, 4th Viscount Montagu (d.1708); and finally to Sir George Maxwell (d.1720). In this portrait an attendant brings her a jewelled coronet. It is thought that the painting was produced while Mary was in exile with her father, who remained loyal to the deposed King James II after the Glorious Revolution of 1688.
Summary
Oil painting on canvas, Lady Mary Herbert, Viscountess Montagu (1659-1744/5) by François de Troy (Toulouse 1645 - Paris 1730), circa 1685 - 1708. A three-quarter-length portrait of the eldest daughter of William, 1st Marquess of Powis, in a red velvet dress being handed her coronet by a young female attendant. It was painted between when she married Francis Browne, 4th Viscount Montagu in 1685 or from when she was in exile with her father, until her husband's death in 1708.
Provenance
Accepted by HM Treasury on 21st March, 1963 in lieu of tax and conveyed to National Trust ownership on 29th November 1963. Recorded at Powis Castle in Montgomery Collections Vol VI P.148 in 1873.
Credit line
Powis Castle, The Powis Collection (National Trust)
Marks and inscriptions
Verso: painted on reverse of canvas: Lady Mary Herbert, Countess Molineux/Vsicountess Montague
Makers and roles
François de Troy (Toulouse 1645 - Paris 1730), artist previously catalogued as attributed to Nicolas de Largillière (Paris 1656 - Paris 1746), artist
References
Tayler 1939 Henrietta Tayler, Lady Nithsdale and her Family, London, 1939, , pp. 2-3, and pl. opp. p. 234 (as: "In her robes for the Coronation of James II and holding her coronet as a Marchioness" [by confusion with the description of the portrait of her mother at Coughton Court on p.2]) Brême 1997 Dominique Brême, François de Troy, Toulouse, 1997, p.52 & fig. P.53 & n.221 p.86 Steegman 1957 John Steegman, A Survey of Portraits in Welsh Houses, Vol.I: North Wales, Cardiff, 1957, p.265, no.35