Thomas Povey (1613/14 - c.1705)
John Michael Wright (bap. London 1617 - London 1694)
Category
Art / Oil paintings
Date
circa 1657
Materials
oil on canvas
Measurements
1041 x 826 mm (41 x 32 1/2 in)
Order this imageCollection
Dyrham, Gloucestershire
NT 454801
Caption
Thomas Povey, the uncle of William I Blathwayt (?1649–1717) of Dyrham Park, was a statesman under Charles II. He had a significant art collection, which was admired by the diarists Samuel Pepys and John Evelyn, and many of his paintings were purchased by his nephew for Dyrham Park in the 1690s. In this portrait, he is shown pointing to the right, in the direction of a blasted oak tree under a stormy sky that can be seen in the right background. A placard with the date 1657 hangs on the tree to the left. This may be one of the portraits of Thomas Povey that William I Blathwayt purchased from his uncle in 1693.
Summary
Oil painting on canvas, Thomas Povey (1613/14 - c.1705) by John Michael Wright (London 1617 - 1694), circa 1657. A three-quarter-length portrait of Povey, his body turned slightly to the right and his head turned slightly to the left. He wears black, with a small white collar and white frilled cuffs. To the left is a grove of trees, on one of which hangs a placard bearing an inscription. To the right is a blasted oak tree under a stormy sky. It is one of two portraits of Thomas Povey by John Michael Wright at Dyrham Park.
Provenance
Presumably painted for Thomas Povey (1613/14 - c.1705), circa 1657; purchased by William Blathwayt (?1649 - 1717) from his uncle, Thomas Povey (1613/14 - c.1705) in 1693; thence by descent; Indigenous purchased by the Ministry of Works in 1956 and given to Dyrham Park in 1961
Credit line
Dyrham Park, The Blathwayt Collection (acquired by the Ministry of Works via the National Land Fund in 1956, and transferred to the National Trust)
Marks and inscriptions
On the placard: EN ICTA CADET IRA / TEMPESTATIS, STUPENDA / ET MEMORABILIS / MDC LVII / HEU QUONDAM DECUS, / IAM LUCTUS SYLVA
Makers and roles
John Michael Wright (bap. London 1617 - London 1694), artist previously catalogued as attributed to Pieter Tillemans (Antwerp 1684 – Suffolk 1734), artist
References
Bargain and sale for £500 from Thos. Povey, the art collector and connoisseur, to Wm. Blathwayt, both of St. Martins-in-the-Fields (co. Middlesex) of pictures and books [1693], 90 or 102 Michael Cyril William Hunter, with Kenneth Garlick and N. J. Mayhew, Elias Ashmole 1617-1692: The Founder of the Ashmolean Museum and his World, exh. cat., Ashmolean Museum, Oxford, 1983, pp.55-6, under no.52