Mary Lepel, Lady Hervey (1700-1768)
after Allan Ramsay (Edinburgh 1713 - Dover 1784)
Category
Art / Oil paintings
Date
1800 - 1899
Materials
Oil on canvas
Measurements
762 x 635 mm (30 x 25 in)
Place of origin
England
Order this imageCollection
Ickworth, Suffolk
NT 851832
Caption
John, Lord Hervey (1696-1743), despite his somewhat ambivalent nature (which forced Lady Mary Wortley Montagu to the conclusion that there were three human species – ‘men, women and Herveys’), made a love match with the beautiful and, by all accounts, delightful Molly Lepel, one of Queen Caroline’s maids of honour. Lord Buckinghamshire later wrote that ‘no one contributed more to the cheerful elegance of her age than Molly Lepel, Lady Hervey...with nothing natural about her she pleas’s like a French flower garden, where art appears in every fancy’d Border. In her youth she affected the matters of that country and in her age acquired them. The prime version, signed and dated 1762, now at Chevening, was painted for Lord Stanhope. This is a late copy.
Summary
Oil painting on canvas, Mary Lepel, Lady Hervey (1700-1768) after Allan Ramsay (Edinburgh 1713 - Dover 1784), 19th century. A head-and-shoulders portrait of a woman, against a dark background. She has a fresh complexion and blue eyes. She is wearing a black cap edged with lace, a red dress with lace at neck and lace ruffles at wrist, and a red mantle edged with fur.
Provenance
This looks like a late copy, painted for 6 St. James’s Square; by descent to the 4th Marquess (1863-1951), on whose death valued for probate; accepted in lieu of tax by HM Treasury, 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
after Allan Ramsay (Edinburgh 1713 - Dover 1784), artist