Captain Thomas Lucy (c.1655 – 1684) and an unidentified enslaved groom
Sir Godfrey Kneller (Lübeck 1646 - London 1723)
Category
Art / Oil paintings
Date
1680 (signed and dated)
Materials
Oil on canvas
Measurements
2280 x 1518 mm (84 3/4 x 59 3/4 in)
Order this imageCollection
Charlecote Park, Warwickshire
NT 533847
Summary
Oil painting on canvas, Captain Thomas Lucy (c.1655-1684) and an unidentified enslaved groom by Godfrey Kneller (Lubeck 1646/9 – London 1723), signed and dated G. Kneller (GK in monogram) f.1680. A full-length portrait with Captain Thomas Lucy positioned slightly to the left and a black groom to the right. Lucy is wearing long buff-coloured jerkin with blue and gold embroidered cuffs, white and orange silk fringed sash, lace jabot and hat held in left hand. The groom, controlling a horse, has a metal collar around his neck and is dressed in blue and scarlet. A troop of cavalry can be discerned in the background. Captain Thomas Lucy (c.1655–84) inherited Charlecote in 1677 and served as Captain of the Household Guards during the Dutch Wars of the 1670s. Note on the unidentified groom: The unidentified groom wears a conspicuous metal collar, indicative of enslavement. It is not known if Kneller painted this unidentified figure from a model or if it is a portrait of a real groom in Captain Lucy's household.
Provenance
Presented 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
Makers and roles
Sir Godfrey Kneller (Lübeck 1646 - London 1723), artist
References
Stewart 1983 J. Douglas Stewart, Sir Godfrey Kneller, Oxford, 1983, p.24, 26