Margaret Gerard, Lady Legh (m. 1584 - d. 1603)
manner of Marcus Gheeraerts the Younger (Bruges 1561/2 - London 1636)
Category
Art / Oil paintings
Date
1600 - 1629
Materials
Oil on canvas
Measurements
2070 x 1123 mm (81 ½ x 44 ¼ in)
Order this imageCollection
Lyme, Cheshire
NT 500454
Summary
Oil painting on canvas, Margaret Gerard, Lady Legh (m. 1584 - d. 1603), manner of Marcus Geeraerts the younger (Bruges 1561 - London 1635), inscribed: in yellow, upper left: Sir Peter Leghs first Lady / That was Lord Gerrads / of Bromley Muster of / the Roles his ~ / Daughter. A standing, full-length portrait, facing, head turned slightly to the left but looking out, both hands down and resting on the projecting part of her dress, the right one holding a closed fan; dressed in a long and long-sleeved dress with a pronounced farthingale, alternating thin strips of greenish braid with yellow ornament on top, and thicker strips of banded orange with little diagonal dark brown [originally red?] slashes. A gauze mantle with pearls at intervals along the border is drawn back from it, and there is a gauze overdress over the whole dress. She wears an elaborate, multi-layered lace collar, a pearl aigrette that extends over her whole head, a pearl necklace with triangular points, four ropes of pearls extending right down below her exceedingly narrowed waist, a star-shaped diamond jewel in the middle of the lace fringe over her bosom, and bubbles of gauze between the circular seven-pearled fastenings down her whole front. A thin black cord of X-shape is looped over the ring-finger of her left hand, the other end [presumably with her wedding-ring on it?] extending under the lace-cuffed end of her sleeve. She stands in brown leather shoes on a patterned Turkey carpet of ‘Larkin’ type, and a pair of dark green curtains are drawn aside from her head and shoulders. Her eyes are bluish-grey. She was one of the four daughters of Queen Elizabeth I's Attorney General, then Master of the Rolls, Sir Gilbert Gerard (c. 1519/20 - 93) and Anne Ratcliffe, who in 1585 was married to Sir Peter (IX) Legh (1563 - 1636).
Provenance
Accepted by HM Government in Lieu of Inheritance Tax and allocated to the National Trust, 2011. Probably by descent and inheritance to William John Legh, 1st Lord Newton (1828– 1898); 1879 inventory, p.111: Staircase leading to the Drawing Room, ‘Sir Peter Legh’s 1st Lady black & gilt frame’; Thomas, 2nd Lord Newton (1857 – 1942); 1929 inventory, p.18: ‘Full length portrait of Margaret Legh (daughter of Sir Gilbert Gerard) …’; Richard, 5th Lord Newton (b.1950), and his brother, the Hon. David Legh (b.1951); accepted by HM Government in lieu of inheritance tax and allocated to the National Trust, 2011.
Credit line
Lyme Park, The Legh Collection (accepted by HM Government in lieu of inheritance tax and allocated to the National Trust, 2011)
Marks and inscriptions
Recto: MARGARET DAUGHTER OF SIR GILBERT GERARD, / MASTER OF THE ROLLS. / MARRIED AS HIS 1ST. WIFE 1584 / SIR PETER LEGH OF LYME. Verso: on stretcher and lining (top member): No 3 on Bottom / from Top Verso: in black paint, on bottom member: 66 Verso: ; a typed label, printed with: From the Town Clerk, Town Hall, Stockport: THE LORD NEWTON / TIMSBURY MANOR, / ROMSEY, HAMPSHIRE. / PORTRAIT OF MARGARET GERARD. / Full length with lace ruff, puff / sleeves and long pearl necklace. / Hair studded with pearls. Holds / fun in right hand. / Catalogue No. 12.
Makers and roles
manner of Marcus Gheeraerts the Younger (Bruges 1561/2 - London 1636), publisher
References
Bruijn de, Laing, Purcell, Rothwell and Rowell 2012 'Acquisitions' in National Trust Historic Houses & Collections Annual, Apollo 2012, p. 64