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Dating to the final years of Elizabeth’s reign, or the first years of the reign of her successor James I, this portrait of a young woman was probably intended as a betrothal or marriage portrait. In execution it is close to the portrait of a young woman, possibly Lady Clifford, at Hatfield House. [1] The monochromatic colour scheme of the sitter’s dress, including the black ‘rosettes’ in her hair had been made fashionable by the new queen, Anne of Denmark (1574-1619).

The blue curtain showing the folds detailed in gold paint was a new innovation from Hilliard, an experiment in painting which stemmed from the red velvet curtains painted in a ‘wet-in-wet’ technique from circa 1594. The painting of this portrait shows Hilliard working in a more summary manner than his earlier, complex portraits of the 1570s and 1580s.

Painted during Hilliard’s final decades, the poverty which plagued the last fifteen years of his life had a great impact on his work. His son Laurence was unable to secure the same grand commissions that his father had enjoyed during the apogee of his working life. Hilliard’s will, dated 24 December 1618, states the paltry sum of 20 shillings to the poor of the parish and £10 to the female servant who had nursed him through his final years.

[1] Noted in E. Auerbach, Nicholas Hilliard (London, 1961), p.152, pl.146. Here Auerbach is probably suggesting Frances Cecil, daughter of Robert Cecil, 1st Earl of Salisbury, who married ‘Lord Clifford, heir of the earl of Cumberland’ in 1610 (P. Croft, ‘Cecil, Robert, first earl of Salisbury (1563-1612)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (Oxford 2008) [online ed.]).