Mary Langham, Countess of Warrington (1652/3-1690/1)
Jonathan Richardson the elder (London 1665 – London 1745)
Category
Art / Oil paintings
Date
circa 1700 - 1710
Materials
Oil on canvas
Measurements
(49 x 39 in) 1245 x 990 mm
Order this imageCollection
Dunham Massey, Cheshire
NT 932315
Summary
Oil painting on canvas, Mary Langham, Countess of Warrington (1652/3-1690/1) by Jonathan Richardson the elder (London 1665 – London 1745), circa 1700/10. Inscribed on plinth of urn: Semper honos nomenq tuum / laudesq manebunt - inscribed on plaque on urn: MARIA / COMITISSA DE WARRINGTON / VITA EXCESSIT 23 MARTIJ / ANNO CHRISTI / 1690/1. Three-quarter length, in a red robe, seated, turned slightly to left, facing, her right hand rests on a table, left, on which there is a coronet, her left arm is on her lap, palm upwards. Behind the table is an urn, inscribed as if it contained her ashes
Full description
Mary Langham, the first Countess of Warrington (1652/3-1690). Daughter of Sir James Langham, 2nd Bt. of Cottesbrooke (the son of Sir John Langham (1583-1671) of Cottesbrooke, Northamptonshire) and his first wife, Mary Alston. In 1670 she married Henry Booth, later 2nd Baron Delamer, 1st Earl of Warrington in 1690 (1651-1694). They had six children: 1) James Booth (b.1671), died in infancy 2) George Booth (1675-1758), later 2nd & last Earl of Warrington, married Mary Oldbury, daughter of John Oldbury, a London merchant 3) Langham Booth (1684-1724), MP for Cheshire and Groom of the Bedchamber to George II, died 12 May 1725 4) Henry Booth (1687-1727) 5) Elizabeth Booth (d.1697), married Thomas Delves, son of Sir Thomas Delves, Bart., of Dodington, Cheshire 6) Mary Booth (d.1741), married the Hon.Russell Robartes; their son Henry Robartes was the 3rd & last Earl of Radnor. She died on 23 March 1690/1, after less than a year as Countess of Warrington.. Buried at Bowdon Church, Cheshire, where a monument was erected to her and her husband, the 1st Earl of Warrington, in 1734, commissioned by their eldest son from André Carpentier. The inscription is as follows: ..... .... DAUGHTER. Gentle, and Kind to Her Servants: Courteous and Beneficent to Her Neighbours. A sincere Friend. A Lover, and Valuer of all GOOD People; Justly BELOVED, & ADMIRED By ALL who KNEW Her Who having perfected HOLINESS in the Fear of GOD, Was, by HIM, received to an Early, & Eternal REST from Her LABOURS On the 23d of March 1690 In the XXXVIIth year of Her AGE: Calmly, & Composedly, Meeting, & Desiring Death; With joyful HOPE, And steadfastness of FAITH. A LIVELY Draught of REAL Worth, and Goodness, And A Pattern DESERVING IMITATION ! Of whom the WORLD was not WORTHY. Hebr.xi38 To perpetuate the remembrance of so much VIRTUE, till that GREAT DAY come, wherein it shall be openly rewarded; This MONUMENT is ERECTED as a Mark of DUTIFUL RESPECT & AFFECTION By the Care of Their SON GEORGE EARL of WARRINGTON Who reveres Their Memory. This portrait which seems to be by Richardson (see below), and should therefore be the picture mentioned on p.12 of the 1769 inventory, may be a variant, 50 x 40 ins., of the one measuring 70 x 60 ins., apparently inscribed Maria [&c] and dated 1691 (other lots call her Mary [&c]) in the 1928 sale, lot 38 (no photo - quaere whether one in Witt or NPG?), which albeit there attributed to Kneller, may have been the portrait in the 1769 inventory “done from other pictures after her death by Dahl”. The portrait called (and indeed inscribed), Mary Langham, Countess of Warrington at Lanhydrock (No.11), which was lot 52 in the 1928 sale) is of a whole generation earlier, in the manner of Lely, and cannot therefore be of her at all. The face and drapery of the present picture do look more like Richardson than Dahl, but this is clearly a posthumous portrait in the costume of the early 18th century, not a portrait of the 17th century (and therefore, like the monument in Bowdon church, done for the sitter’s sorrowful son – and adolescent when she died – after he had attained his majority – rather than for her grieving husband. By no stretch of the imagination is it a copy of a Wissing or a Closterman. Perhaps the 1769 inventory muddled which of Richardson and Dahl had done the posthumous original, and which the copy – or could this be a copy of a lost original by Richardson himself? - or could this indeed have been a variant copy of the Dahl, and the latter the whole-length called Kneller dated 1691 in the 1928 sale? The use of ‘1691’, rather than 1690/1, suggests a portrait so inscribed, which would therefore have itself been posthumous. To judge by its absence from the 1928 [and 1931?] sale, the present picture seems not to have been one of those removed to Enville Hall in the 1850s and 1860s. That may be why, when the 10th Earl recorded its presence at Dunham Massey in 1974, its location was: “In a dark corner, outside a small lavatory”, at the foot of the Great Stairs.
Provenance
Bequeathed to the National Trust with the house, estate and all the contents of Dunham Massey by Roger Grey, 10th Earl of Stamford (1896 - 1976)
Marks and inscriptions
(labelled)
Makers and roles
Jonathan Richardson the elder (London 1665 – London 1745), artist