Lady Mary Booth, later Countess of Stamford (1704 – 1772), as a child
Michael Dahl (Stockholm 1659 - London 1743)
Category
Art / Oil paintings
Date
circa 1710
Materials
Oil on canvas
Measurements
1244 x 1004 mm (49 x 39 1/2 in)
Order this imageCollection
Dunham Massey, Cheshire
NT 932351
Caption
Mary Booth was the only daughter and heiress of George Booth, 2nd Earl of Warrington (1675-1758) and Mary Oldbury. In 1736 she married her cousin, Harry Grey, Lord Grey of Groby, later 4th Earl of Stamford (1715-1768). Dunham Massey thus passed to the Grey family. When the 2nd Earl of Warrington died in 1758, he bequeathed all his estates to his daughter and her successors. Trained by her father, it was she and not her husband who took up the reins of management of Dunham Massey. The books in the Library which bear Lady Mary’s bookplate suggest that she was something of a bluestocking, for they consist mainly of religious topics or poetry. However, she had a more attractive disposition than her father; her daughter-in-law described her in 1766 as ‘the Mistress of this House, whose greatest Joy is to make those belonging to her happy and easy.’
Summary
Oil painting on canvas, Lady Mary Booth, later Countess of Stamford (1704 – 1772), as a child by Michael Dahl (Stockholm 1656/9 – London 1743). Full-length portrait of a young girl, turned to the right, gazing at the spectator, seated on a red cushioned stool beside a large porphry (?) urn with a tree growing out of it; she wears a yellow dress and blue scarf and holds a spray of roses on her lap, her pale brown hair is swept back and falls in curls behind her. In the centre of the background is a stone colonnade and to the far left a landscape of trees and cloudy blue sky.
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
Verso: Christie’s stencil: 779 FG; cut-out portions of catalogue of Christie’s sale Friday, February 27, 1931, lot 104; chalk inscrs.: 104 and Lady Deramore Verso: printed label: Jas. Bowman & Sons / Monk Bar, York / 89
Makers and roles
Michael Dahl (Stockholm 1659 - London 1743), publisher