Richard Sackville, 3rd Earl of Dorset (1589-1624)
previously catalogued as attributed to Gilbert Soest (Soest c.1605 – London 1681)
Category
Art / Oil paintings
Date
circa 1610 - 1624
Materials
Oil on canvas
Measurements
2215 x 1300 mm (84 x 50 in)
Order this imageCollection
Knole, Kent
NT 129915
Summary
Oil painting on canvas, Richard Sackville, 3rd Earl of Dorset (1589-1624), attributed to William Larkin (London c.1585 – London 1619). A full-length portrait of a young man, turned slightly to the left, gazing at the spectator, standing on a Turkey carpet between parted curtains, his left hand on his hip his right hand on a table covered with an embroidered green satin cloth on which is placed his feathered hat, he is wearing a black embroidered doublet and cloak with stiffened lace collar and lace cuffs, rich gold sword belt, belt and garters and large lace pompons on his shoes. The frame, which the portrait has been enlarged to fit is of a unique pattern within Knole. It is topped by what appears to be a horse’s – once a unicorn’s? – head upon a ducal coronet. The Sackville crest was ram’s though whilst the ducal coronet would be anachronistic. He succeeded his father in 1609, a few days after he had married Lady Ann Clifford. He was a friend of James I and was notorious for his extravagance. His widow, after a second unsuccessful marriage to the 4th Earl of Pembroke, retired for the latter part of her life to rule over the vast Cumberland estates in the North. Her diaries for 1616-19 provide a detailed record of her life at Knole.
Provenance
?1706 inventory: whole lengths of Richard Earle of Dorset and his lady (which could in theory refer to the 5th Earl, but only the head-and-shoulders by Walker is known of him); 1799 inv.: “Richard 3d Earl of Dorset Mytens” in the Ball Room; 1828 inv., ibid. (No.414); on loan from the Trustees of the Sackville Estate
Credit line
Knole, The Sackville Collection (National Trust)
Makers and roles
previously catalogued as attributed to Gilbert Soest (Soest c.1605 – London 1681), artist attributed to William Larkin (London c.1585 – London 1619), artist previously catalogued as attributed to Daniel Mytens the elder (Delft c.1590 – The Hague 1648), artist previously catalogued as attributed to Marcus Gheeraerts the Elder (c.1520/1 - c.1586), artist
References
Strong 1969 Roy Strong, The English Icon, Elizabethan and Jacobean Portraiture, London, 1969, no. 336