Lady Anne Sackville, Lady Beauchamp (1586–1664) or Frances Prynne or Prinne, Lady Seymour of Trowbridge (d.1626)
William Larkin (London c.1585 – London 1619)
Category
Art / Oil paintings
Date
circa 1615
Materials
Oil on canvas
Measurements
2115 x 1321 mm (83 ¼ x 52 in)
Place of origin
England
Order this imageCollection
Petworth House and Park, West Sussex
NT 486187
Caption
This portrait is inscribed with the supposed name of the sitter on the carpet, in a later hand found on most of the portraits in the Carved Room at Petworth. It could refer to any number of ‘Lady Seymours’, but given the probable dating of the picture and the then obscurity of the supposed sitter, it is unlikely to represent Frances Prynne before her marriage in 1620, when she became Lady Seymour of Trowbridge, rather than just ‘Lady Seymour’. It is much more probably a portrait of the wife of Sir Francis Seymour, (1586-1618), who married her in 1609. She was a daughter of Robert Sackville, 2nd Earl of Dorset. Both of her brothers, the later 3rd and 4th Earls, and Lady Anne Clifford, wife of the 3rd Earl, were painted by Larkin, who appears to have specialised in sets of portraits of kin groups.
Summary
Oil painting on canvas, Lady Anne Sackville, Lady Beauchamp (1586–1664) or Frances Prynne or Prinne, Lady Seymour of Trowbridge (d.1626), by William Larkin (London c.1585 – London 1619). A full-length portrait of a young woman, standing, full face, her right hand extended, resting on a red-backed chair, and holding a white fan; she is wearing a black patterned silk dress, an Antwerp green petticoat, ruff and white shoes. In her left hand is a large handkerchief with point lace hem. She is standing on a green, red, white and gold Turkey carpet against dull magenta curtains, gold fringed, each side.
Provenance
In the collection of the 2nd Earl of Egremont (1710-1763) by his death in 1763. 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 Seymour (on carpet, bottom right, in a later hand found on all portraits in the Carved Room save the 6th Duke of Somerset and Charles I on Horseback)
Makers and roles
William Larkin (London c.1585 – London 1619), artist