Called Elizabeth Wriothesley, Countess of Northumberland (1646 -1690)
Sir Peter Lely (Soest 1618 – London 1680)
Category
Art / Oil paintings
Date
1662 - 1663
Materials
Oil on canvas
Measurements
1230 x 1000 mm
Order this imageCollection
Petworth House and Park, West Sussex
NT 486182
Caption
The supposed sitter was the daughter of Thomas Wriothesley, 4th Earl of Southampton (1607–1667) and his first wife Rachel de Ruvigny. She married Edward Noel in 1661, who succeeded his father as Viscount Campden in 1682, and was created Earl of Gainsborough in the same year. She died in 1680 before his succession to these titles. Her half-sister, also called Elizabeth Wriothesley (1646–1690), the daughter of the Earl of Southampton’s second marriage, to Lady Elizabeth Leigh, became the wife of Josceline Percy, 11th Earl of Northumberland (1644–1670). She is also represented in portraits at Petworth.
Summary
Oil painting on canvas, Called Elizabeth Wriothesley, Countess of Northumberland (1646 -1690) by Sir Peter Lely (Soest 1618 – London 1680), 1662/3. A three-quarter-length portrait of a young woman, standing, turned to the right, gazing at the spectator, with a flower in her left hand and wearing a gold dress with a pale rose scarf. The background is of sky behind her head and trees right and left.
Provenance
In the collection of the 3rd Earl of Egremont (1751-1837) by 1835; thence by descent, until the death in 1952 of the 3rd Lord Leconfield, who had given Petworth to the National Trust in 1947, and whose nephew and heir, John Wyndham, 6th Lord Leconfield and 1st Lord Egremont (1920-72) arranged for the acceptance of the major portion of the collections at Petworth in lieu of death duties (the first ever such arrangement) in 1956 by H.M.Treasury.
Credit line
Petworth House, The Egremont Collection (acquired in lieu of tax by HM Treasury in 1956 and subsequently transferred to the National Trust)
Marks and inscriptions
Lady Elizabeth Howard / Countess of Northumberland (inscribed bottom right)
Makers and roles
Sir Peter Lely (Soest 1618 – London 1680)