With her hand raised to her heart, this portrait encapsulates
the romance and intimacy that has enthralled collectors
of miniatures and the wider public alike for centuries.

 The sitter is thought to be Venetia Stanley, a woman
of famed beauty at the Jacobean court. Venetia was
raised in a strict Roman Catholic household and was
the granddaughter of Thomas Percy, 7th Earl of
Northumberland, who was executed in 1572 for plotting
to depose Queen Elizabeth I. Venetia’s early life was
plagued by gossip and rumours of love affairs, most
notably with Edward Sackville, 4th Earl of Dorset.
Unshaken by the scandalous whispers, Sir Kenelm
Digby – whose earlier efforts to court Venetia had been
thwarted by his disapproving mother – pursued her
affections, and the two were secretly married in 1624.
[2] They had four children together, but their union was
cut short when Venetia died in her sleep in 1633 at the
age of just 33.

 Mourning the loss of his beloved wife, Digby sought to
preserve her memory in almost every medium available
to him: he commissioned plaster casts of her head, hands
and feet, and asked Sir Anthony Van Dyck to paint her on
her deathbed (the first of several posthumous portraits
by the famous court painter).[3] He later oversaw the
publication of literary tributes from the likes of Ben
Jonson and commissioned an elaborate black marble
tomb to be placed in Christ Church Greyfriars, where
she was laid to rest. Intimate and contemplative, the
small-scale format of portrait miniatures offered Digby
yet another way to honour the memory of his beloved
wife.

 The present work relates to a portrait miniature by Isaac
Oliver in the collection at Sherborne Castle in Dorset,
the home of the Wingfield Digby family (fig. 4). It is
thought to be the earliest likeness of Venetia following
her presentation at court in around 1614.[4] A copy by
Peter Oliver, who was frequently patronised by Digby,
is in the Victoria and Albert Museum (fig. 5). A further
example, which follows the same composition as the
present work, is also in the collection at Sherborne Castle,
and although bearing Isaac Oliver’s monogram,[5] is
thought to have been painted later by his son, Peter
Oliver.[6 ]The present example was likely painted in the
late seventeenth century and is a clear demonstration of
the enduring fame and fondness for Venetia that existed
long after her death.

As revealed by the eighteenth-century hinged case which
accompanies the present work, the sitter was previously
thought to be Lady Arabella Stuart (1575–1615), a cousin
of Queen Elizabeth I who was once considered a possible
contender to the throne.

 Arabella’s life was fascinating
and tragic, marked by court intrigue, imprisonment,
a secret marriage and eventual death in the Tower of
London. This made her an appealing subject for later
collectors of Jacobean portrait miniatures, and in the
absence of verified likenesses, her name was frequently –
and often indiscriminately– assigned to various portraits
of unidentified, romanticised Jacobean women.

 Fig. 4 |Isaac Oliver, A Young Lady,
probably Venetia Stanley, Lady Digby. Watercolour on
vellum, 59 × 45 mm. Sherborne Castle, Dorset
Fig. 5 |Peter Oliver, Venetia Stanley,
Lady Digby, c. 1615–1622. Watercolour on vellum, 64 ×
50 mm. Victoria and Albert Museum, London
3
The provenance of the present work is well recorded
and it passed through the hands of some of the most
distinguished collectors of portrait miniatures. The
earliest recorded owner was Spencer Compton, 1st
Earl of Wilmington, a prominent Whig statesman
who served as Prime Minister from 1742 until his
death the following year. Wilmington was a notable
bibliophile, and his collection of 1171 books was
sold over ten evenings in 1744.[7] The next custodian
was no less than the antiquarian Horace Walpole
(1717–1797), one of the most famous miniature
collectors of his day, who amassed a collection of around
130 examples by some of the greatest painters. We know
from the catalogue of the Strawberry Hill sale in 1842
that it was displayed in the ‘Tribune’, a small room on
the first floor, which housed some of his most prized
possessions, including a rosewood cabinet containing
portrait miniatures and enamels.[8] The miniature was
displayed within this cabinet, and can be seen, with its
hinged door closed, in a watercolour of the miniature
cabinet painted by John Carter around 1784 (fig. 16, p.
28). Following the Strawberry Hill sale, it entered the
collection at Hamilton Palace, the grand ancestral seat
of the Dukes of Hamilton, and then into the collection
of C. H. T. Hawkins, a notable collector of miniatures.
It later became part of the collection of John Pierpont
Morgan (1837–1913), the most celebrated miniature
collector of the era, and Viscount Bearsted acquired it
at the 1935 sale of Morgan’s collection.