Live Auction 1539Old Master & British Paintings Day Sale
Circle of Sir Anthony van Dyck (Antwerp 1599-1641 London)
Lot 191 PROPERTY OF A NOBLE FAMILY (LOTS 190 & 191)

Circle of Sir Anthony van Dyck (Antwerp 1599-1641 London)

Portrait of Mary Villiers (1622-1685), Lady Herbert, later Duchess of Lennox and Richmond, full-length, in a blue silk dress with pearl ornaments and a rust wrap, with her attendant, Anne Shepherd, in a red dress, holding a salver with gloves, a landscape beyond

Closed9 July 2014

Price Realised

GBP 20,000

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Circle of Sir Anthony van Dyck (Antwerp 1599-1641 London)
Portrait of Mary Villiers (1622-1685), Lady Herbert, later Duchess of Lennox and Richmond, full-length, in a blue silk dress with pearl ornaments and a rust wrap, with her attendant, Anne Shepherd, in a red dress, holding a salver with gloves, a landscape beyond
with inscription: 'Mary Duchess of Richmond / daughter of Duke of Buckingham / Vandyck pinx' (lower left); and 'The Lady Mary Villiers only / Daughter to George Villiers / first Duke of Buckingham / & Wife to James Stuart Duke / of Richmond & Lenox.' (centre right)
oil on canvas
81 7/8 x 49½ in. (208 x 125.7 cm.)

George, 8th Earl Poulett (d.1973), Hinton House, Hinton St. George, Somerset, until 1968.
Private collection, Geneva.

Specialist note

The eldest child and only daughter of King James I's favourite George Villiers, Duke of Buckingham (1592-1628), Mary Villiers first married Charles Herbert, Lord Herbert of Shurland (1619-1636) on 8 January 1635 in the Royal Closet at Whitehall. After Herbert's death from smallpox whilst in Florence the following year, she married secondly the cousin of King Charles I, James Stuart, 1st Duke of Richmond (1612-1655) on 3 August 1637. The prime version is in the collection of the Duke of Marlborough, Blenheim Palace, Oxfordshire.