Called Alice, Mary and Catherine Lucy: the Daughters of Sir Fulke Lucy of Henbury and Isabella Davenport but probably Isabella, Bridget and Catherine Lucy
British (English) School
Category
Art / Oil paintings
Date
circa 1677 - circa 1680
Materials
OIl on canvas
Measurements
1232 x 1753 mm (48 1/2 x 69 in)
Order this imageCollection
Charlecote Park, Warwickshire
NT 533843
Caption
The three girls painted here are the daughters of Sir Fulke Lucy of Henbury (c.1623-77) and Isabella Daveport, whom he married in around 1656. Sir Fulke’s brother, Richard Lucy, owned Charlecote, where this picture remains today. The children are shown in a pastoral mode, with Mary, to the left, and Catherine, in the centre, showering a lamb with garlands and flowers. Alice, on the left, is portrayed as a shepherdess, holding an ‘houlette’, or shepherd’s spud. In spite of the rural theme, they are dressed in sumptuous silks, as would befit their status. Although the attenuated bodies, and long thin arms of the sitters are distinctive, it has not been possible to attribute the picture, although it does bear some similarities to the early work of Closterman.
Summary
Oil painting on canvas, Alice, Mary and Catherine Lucy: the Daughters of Sir Fulke Lucy of Henbury and Isabella Davenport, British (English) School, circa 1680. An oil painting of three sisters (Alice Lucy, later Mrs John Hammond (1646/9 – 1723), Mary Lucy, and Catherine Lucy) as children with a lamb. Mary, is standing at the left wearing a gold dress and holding the end of a garland of flowers over a lamb; the other end of the garland is held by the youngest child of the group, Catherine, who is seated in the centre, wearing a white dress and pink cloak. The eldest daughter, Alice, is seated at the left, dressed in brown with a blue cloak and holding a shepherd's crook and a rose in her hands. Framed in rectangular gilt frame.
Provenance
Presented to the National Trust by Sir Montgomerie Fairfax-Lucy (1896 – 1965), two years after the death of his father, Sir Henry Ramsay-Fairfax, 3rd Bt (1870 – 1944), with Charlecote Park and its chief contents, in 1946.
Credit line
Charlecote Park, The Fairfax-Lucy Collection (National Trust)
Makers and roles
British (English) School, artist