
Mary Beale
Portrait of a Lady seated in a landscape, late 17th century
Oil on canvas
15 ¼ x 18 3/8 ins. (38.8cm x 46.6cm)
Philip Mould & Co.
To view all current artworks for sale visit philipmould.com We are grateful to Tabitha Barber for confirming the artist as Mary Beale upon first-hand inspection of the work This recently...
To view all current artworks for sale visit philipmould.com
This recently discovered painting by Mary Beale is a fine example of her work ‘in little’ and is a significant addition to this largely understudied corpus of works.
Mary Beale was one of the most successful female portrait painters working in England in the late-17th century. Although Beale is best known for her intimate portraits of close friends and family, she also copied works by her friend and contemporary Sir Peter Lely ‘in little’. Beale would borrow works from Lely’s studio – usually painted on a standard 50 x 40 inch canvas – and reproduce them in a smaller format, typically measuring around 18 x 15 inches. In his detailed notebooks, Mary’s husband and studio manager, Charles, recorded numerous ‘pictures of Mr. Lelys coppyed by Mrs Beal.’ including at least 14 in 1676 alone.[1]
These small full-length portraits were very popular, especially following the death of Lely in 1680, and we know that collectors would sometimes hang them together in groups. One such collector was Horace Walpole (1717-97), who acquired a group of 19 of these small portraits from the estate of Edward Lovibond (1724-1775), who in turn acquired them from the portrait painter Charles Jervas (1675-1739). The present work was once part of this celebrated group.
A label attached to the reverse of this work states:
‘This picture was bought by Charles P. Leslie about 1866 from/Grundy of Manchester who bought it at Strawberry Hill sale/We thing it is…referred to in vol.2 – p.418/of Lord Orford’s works/It is there described as a copied by Jarvis from Peter/ Lely’s collection of Charles II’s Beauties./Horace Walpole describes it as hanging in the Yellow Bed Chamber or Beauty Room of Strawberry Hill/The picture is now at Glaslough [Castle Leslie] + with the verses/on the back – same as those in Lord Orford’s book/ no.413 is marked at the back/ C.L. Glaslough 19/Jan/1877’
The mention of ‘…verses…same as those in Lord Orford’s book’ identifies this work as the portrait of ‘Mrs Trevor’ listed in ‘A Description of the Villa of Horace Walpole’ compiled by Walpole (later 4th Earl of Orford) and published in 1774. Within the book is an inventory of the ‘Furniture, Pictures and Curiousities’ and among the works listed in the ‘Yellow Bedchamber or Beauty-Room’ is the portrait of Mrs Trevor, accompanied by a rhyming verse about her deceitful lover Thomas Thynne. The ‘no.413…marked at the back’ refers to the auctioneers lot number (still affixed to reverse) from when it was sold in the estate sale of Lord Northwick in 1859 as lot 413 (see provenance).
Although the identification of the subject of our work as Mrs Trevor is well established, she in fact bears little resemblance to Trevor, whose portrait by Lely hangs at Glynde Place in East Sussex, home of the Trevor family between 1679 and 1824. Instead, the portrait by Lely from which our work derives is in a private English collection where the sitter is given as Louise Renée de Penancoët de Kérouaille, Duchess of Portsmouth. Although current scholarship has ruled out the Duchess of Portsmouth as the sitter for the Lely (and thus our) portrait, it is quite possible that Walpole did in fact believe this to be correct, and thus proudly displayed our portrait as a likeness of the great Restoration beauty.
It is evident, therefore, that at some point during the 19th century, possibly in preparation for the Strawberry Hill sale, the identities of the subjects of this group got confused. This often happened with late-17th century English portraits, especially those painted or influenced by Lely, who would repeat compositions and stylise his subject at the cost of identifiable and precise facial features.
As was typical of English painters working in the 17th century Beale rarely signed her work, and as a result the identity of the artist of this portrait has been repeatedly confused. Whilst in Horace Walpole’s collection at Strawberry Hill, the artist of this work (and the others from the same group) was stated as Charles Jervas (1675-1739). This erroneous attribution can be traced as far back as 1784, when a description of the house and inventory of Strawberry Hill was published. The attribution to Jervas seems to have been based on the fact that Walpole had acquired the portraits from Edward Lovibond (1724-1775), who in turn had bought them as part of an estate once owned by Charles Jervas, who died in 1739. Oddly, however, when Walpole viewed this set of portraits at Lovibond’s house Elm Lodge (or The Elms) sometime earlier between August 1770 and June 1771, he described them as being by Beale.[2] It is unclear why Walpole later revised the attribution, not least as he would have known that Edward Lovibond’s father (also Edward) owned a number of works relating to the Beale family, including two portraits by Sir Peter Lely of Beale’s son Bartholomew [Dulwich Picture Gallery] and cousin-in-law Alice Woodforde (née Beale) [private collection].
At the Strawberry Hill sale in 1843 the present work was bought by the dealers Town and Emmanuel, and the next time it appears on the market is in 1859 in the estate sale of John Rushout, 2nd Lord Northwick (1770-1859). It was described as a portrait of ‘Mrs Trevor’ but stated as by Sir Peter Lely. By 1913 the attribution to Jervas had once again been reinstated, and it is described as such in A Dictionary of Irish Artists by Walter Strickland, who probably based this attribution on the cataloguing from the Strawberry Hill sale. The attribution to Jervas is repeated in a book published in 1997 on the art collection of Walpole (see literature) and was later consigned to Christie’s in 2003 as a work by Jervas.[3] It has now been formally recognised as a work by Mary Beale and is an exciting addition to her recorded oeuvre.
[1] “VERTUE'S NOTE BOOK” [British Museum, Add. MS. 23,072].” The Volume of the Walpole Society, vol. 24, 1935, p. 175
[2] P. Toynbee [ed.] Horace Walpole’s Journals of Visits to Country Seats, in ‘The Walpole Society’, vol.xvi, 1927-8, p.69
[3] Christie’s, London, The Irish Sale, 15 May 2003, lot 10
Provenance
Charles Jervas (1675-1739);Edward Lovibond (1724-1775);
His posthumous sale, Skinner, 27-28 May 1776 (catalogue untraced);
Horace Walpole (1717-97), 4th Earl of Orford, by descent to;
The Earl of Waldegrave, by whom sold;
Strawberry Hill sale, 22nd Day, 19 May 1843, presumably lot 114 (£4.15.0);
Town and Emmanuel (Art Dealers), London;
John Rushout, 2nd Lord Northwick (1770-1859), Thirlestane House, Cheltenham;
Northwick sale, Phillips, Thirlestane House, Cheltenham, 2 August 1859, lot 413 (as a portrait of ‘Mrs Trevor’ by ‘Lely’) (lot number affixed to reverse);
John Clowes Grundy (Art Dealer), Manchester, from whom acquired in 1866 by;
Sir John Leslie, 1st Bt., of Castle Leslie, Co. Monaghan, thence by descent, until sold;
Mullen’s, Laurel Park, Co. Dublin, 12 June 2017, lot 318 (as English School, 19th Century, Unknown Subject)
Literature
W.G. Strickland, A Dictionary of Irish Artists, London, 1913, Vol. I, p.552 (as by Charles Jervas)P. Hill, Walpole’s Art Collection: Horace Walpole’s oil Paintings, Water Colours and Drawings at Strawberry Hill, Twickenham, 1997, pp.26 and 67