Lady Isabella Bennet, Duchess of Grafton (1667 – 1723)
studio of Sir Peter Lely (Soest 1618 – London 1680)
Category
Art / Oil paintings
Date
1679 (after)
Materials
Oil on canvas
Measurements
1245 x 965 mm (49 x 38 in)
Place of origin
England
Order this imageCollection
Ickworth, Suffolk
NT 851747
Caption
The sitter was the daughter of Henry, Earl of Arlington. Her first husband, whom she married in 1672 was Charles II’s son by the Countess of Castlemaine, Henry Fitzroy, 1st Duke of Grafton (1663–90). He was mortally wounded while in command at the siege of Cork. Her second husband, whom she married in 1698, was Sir Thomas Hanmer, (1677–1746), 4th and last Bt., of Hanmer, Flintshire, and Mildenhall, later Speaker of the House of Commons (1714–15). He was editor of the first fine edition of Shakespeare. John Evelyn, who was close to the Arlingtons, wrote in his diary, on the day of her first marriage, that Isabella was the “sweetest, hopefullest, most beautifull child, & most vertuous too, was Sacrific’d to a boy that had been rudely bred… [she] will in a few yeares be such a paragon, as were fit to make the Wife of the greatest Prince in Europe.”
Summary
Oil painting on canvas, Lady Isabella Bennet, Duchess of Grafton (1667 – 1723) by studio of Willem Wissing (Amsterdam 1656 - Burghley House 1687). after 1679. Three-quarter length portrait of a young girl, turned to the right, gazing at the spectator, seated to right of a stone bench, wearing a long grey gown, edged at bodice in light brown, ruched sleeves with drooping white cuffs; deepish turquoise mantle draped at back, edged in light brown. Short curly brown hair, parted in centre. She has a small bunch of flowers lying on stone bench and is holding narrow red ribbon in her left hand, in process of tying the flowers on a stone ledge on the right. Classical landscape in background, in rich brown tones.
Provenance
Probably by descent from Isabella Hervey, maternal granddaughter of Henry Bennet, 1st Earl of Arlington, to Frederick, 4th Marquess of Bristol (1863–1951; succ.1907); accepted in lieu of tax by HM Treasury, and allocated 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
studio of Sir Peter Lely (Soest 1618 – London 1680), artist previously catalogued as studio of Willem Wissing (Amsterdam 1656 - Burghley House 1687), artist
References
Farrer 1908 Edmund Farrer, Portraits in Suffolk Houses (West), 1908, no. 31