Lady Elizabeth Seymour, Countess of Thomond (1685-1734)
Michael Dahl (Stockholm 1659 - London 1743)
Category
Art / Oil paintings
Date
circa 1710
Materials
Oil on canvas
Measurements
1245 x 991 mm (49 x 39 in)
Order this imageCollection
Petworth House and Park, West Sussex
NT 486273
Caption
This is one of a series of seven portraits by Michael Dahl known as the ‘Petworth Beauties’ painted for Charles Seymour, 6th Duke of Somerset (1662-1748) in the late 1690s. These pictures may have been painted in conscious rivalry with Sir Godfrey Kneller’s ‘Hampton Court Beauties’. Dahl was first employed by the Duke in 1696, and superseded Closterman in what amounted to the position of official court painter to the Duke. The quality of the pictures was remarked upon by George Vertue in his ‘Notebooks.’ Lady Elizabeth Seymour was the daughter of Charles Seymour, 6th Duke of Somerset (1662-1748) and Lady Elizabeth Percy (1667-1722). She married Henry O’Brien, 8th Earl of Thomond and Viscount Tadcaster (1688-1741).
Summary
Oil painting on canvas, Lady Elizabeth Seymour, Countess of Thomond (1685-1734) by Michael Dahl (Stockholm 1656/9 – London 1743).Circa 1710 A three-quarter-length portrait, standing with her right arm across her waist and her left hand resting on a table wearing a blue cross-over robe with a revealing neckline.
Provenance
In the collection of the 2nd Earl of Egremont (1710-1763) at the time of his death; 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.
Marks and inscriptions
Lady Elizabeth Seymour/Countess of Thomond (bottom left)
Makers and roles
Michael Dahl (Stockholm 1659 - London 1743), artist