The Hon. Isabella Carr Hervey (1689-1711) (?)
attributed to Michael Dahl (Stockholm 1659 - London 1743)
Category
Art / Oil paintings
Date
circa 1705 - 1711
Materials
Oil on canvas
Measurements
1226 x 997 mm (48¼ x 39¼ in)
Place of origin
England
Order this imageCollection
Ickworth, Suffolk
NT 851707
Summary
Oil painting on canvas, The Hon. Isabella Carr Hervey (1689-1711) (?) [previously Isabella Carr, Mrs John Hervey (1669/70-1693) or Elizabeth Felton, Countess of Bristol (1676-1741)], attributed to Michael Dahl (Stockholm 1656/9 – London 1743), inscribed: in black, on the plinth at the left: Isabella, wife of John Earl of Bristol, circa 1705/11. A three-quarter-length portraot of a young woman, turned slightly to the right, head turned to the left, gazing at the spectator, standing, wearing a pale mauve dress, loosely draped sleeves turned back over white frilled under-blouse; dark curly hair, brown eyes, her right hand resting on a stone pedestal with a lovely still-life of grapes and peaches, left hand outstretched. Landscape background with very dark trees, blue sky and clouds to right. Isabella Carr Hervey (1689-1711) was the eldest child of John Hervey, later 1st Earl of Bristol’s first marriage, to the heiress Isabella Carr (1670-93), the elder of the two daughters of hits marriage, and the only one to attain adulthood. Her distraught father recorded her death in his Diary (p.55) under 14 October 1711, thus: “Sunday, my most pious, wise & dutifull daughter, Mrs Isabella Carr Hervey fell sick of a feaver at Ickworth; of which she died ye xith of November following; & was interr’d at her most excellent mothers feet ye 15th after in Ickworth chancel.”
Provenance
Presumably commissioned by John, Baron Hervey, later 1st Earl of Bristol (1665-1751), and thence by descent to Frederick William, 5th Earl and 1st Marquess of Bristol (1769-1859), by whom noted in his handwritten list of paintings at Ickworth, c.1837, in the Breakfast Room: “4 Lady Hervey wife of Lord Hervey afterwards E. of Bristol”; thence by descent to Frederick, 3rd Marquess of Bristol (1834-1907), accepted by HM Treasury in lieu of tax and transferred to the National Trust in 1956.
Credit line
Ickworth, The Bristol Collection (acquired through the National Land Fund and transferred to The National Trust in 1956)
Makers and roles
attributed to Michael Dahl (Stockholm 1659 - London 1743), artist
References
Farrer 1908 Edmund Farrer, Portraits in Suffolk Houses (West), 1908, No. 79, p. 214 Nisser 1927 Wilhelm Nisser, Michael Dahl and the Contemporary Swedish School of Painting in England, Uppsala, 1927, no.21, catalogue section, p.7