Possibly Alice Bankes, Lady Borlase (1621-1683)
possibly Gilbert Soest (Soest c.1605 – London 1681)
Category
Art / Oil paintings
Date
circa 1675 - circa 1680
Materials
Oil on canvas
Measurements
1257 x 991 mm (49 1/2 x 39 in)
Order this imageCollection
Sudbury Hall (Children's Country House), Derbyshire
NT 653176
Summary
Oil painting on canvas, Possibly Alice Bankes, Lady Borlase (1621-1683), possibly Gerard Soest (Soest c.1600 – London 1681), inscribed upper left, Lady Borlace./by Sir P.Lely. A three-quarter-length portrait of a woman, seated, turned to the right, gazing at the spectator, her left hand holding a scallop shell to a fountain on the right and wearing a gold-coloured dress and blue cloak, with long golden hair 'en taureau'. She also wears a single strand pearl necklet and drop pearl earrings, landscape background with trees, and sky. Eldest daughter of Sir John Bankes she married Sir John Borlase in 1637 Shows her as an older woman than in Van Dyck's portrait at Kingston Lacy. Another version is in the National Gallery of Art, Washington. This is regarded by R. Strong as an autograph portrait.
Provenance
By descent from the sitter, via the Borlase Warrens and Frances Warren, Lady Vernon; acquired from 10th Lord Vernon in lieu of death-duties after the death of Francis Lawrence William Venables-Vernon, 9th Lord Vernon (1889 -1963) and transferred to the National Trust in 1967 through the National Land Fund
Credit line
Sudbury Hall, The Vernon Collection (acquired through the National Land Fund and transferred to the National Trust in 1967)
Marks and inscriptions
Recto: Inscribed, upper left: Lady Borlace, by Sir Peter Lely. Gerard Soest
Makers and roles
possibly Gilbert Soest (Soest c.1605 – London 1681), artist previously catalogued as studio of Sir Peter Lely (Soest 1618 – London 1680), artist
References
Hayes 1992 John Hayes, British Paintings of the Sixteenth through Nineteenth Centuries, National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1992, pp.256-57 & Fig.1