Lady Caroline Hervey (1736-1819)
attributed to Johann Zoffany, RA (Frankfurt am Main 1733 - Kew 1810)
Category
Art / Oil paintings
Date
circa 1765
Materials
Oil on canvas
Measurements
660 x 508 mm (26 x 20 in)
Place of origin
England
Order this imageCollection
Ickworth, Suffolk
NT 851785
Caption
The sitter was the fourth and youngest daughter of John, Lord Hervey (1696-1743) and Mary Lepel, daughter of Brig. General Nicholas Lepel. Both she and her sister, Emily, remained single and both lived into their 80s. They were buried at Preston near Brighton in Sussex. Caroline’s beauty was commented upon by the satirical writer Charles Churchill: ‘That face, that form, that dignity, that ease,/ Those powers of pleasing with that will to please/ By which Lepel, when in her youthful days./ Even from the currish Pope extorted praise/ We see transmitted, in her daughter shine/ And view a new Lepel in Caroline.’” In this portrait she is wearing a black shawl, evidently in token of half-mourning. This could have been for her mother, who died in September 1768.
Summary
Oil painting on canvas, Lady Caroline Hervey (1736-1819), attributed to Johann Zoffany, RA (Frankfurt am Main 1733 - Kew 1810), circa 1765. A three-quarter-length portrait of a young woman, turned to the left, gazing at the spectator, seated by a table on which her left arm is resting and before a carved mantlepiece on which stands a Sèvres-style vase with flowers; she wears a deep rose pink dress, with large white lace cuffs, black lace shawl and small jewelled headdress edged with seed pearls. She wears a long white glove on her left hand and hold the other in her right on her lap. She wears a miniature on her right wrist which according to Manners and Williamson may be of Lady Mulgrave.A brown draped curtain hangs in the upp right-hand corner. Painting inscribed 'Lady Caroline Hervey'.
Provenance
By inheritance and descent to the 4th Marquess (1863-1951), on whose death, valued for probate; accepted by HM Treasury in lieu of death duties, 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)
Marks and inscriptions
Lady Caroline Hervey
Makers and roles
attributed to Johann Zoffany, RA (Frankfurt am Main 1733 - Kew 1810), artist