Portrait of Mary Fitzalan, Duchess of Norfolk

1556

Hans Eworth

Yale Center for British Art

Katherine Brydges, Lady Dudley

The Fitzwilliam Museum Portrait

Called Unknown Lady (Perhaps Lady Jane Grey)

Formerly Mary Tudor when Princess

The middle of the 1550's*

Hans Eworth

The Fitzwilliam Museum | PD.1-1963

The fashions of Lady Jane Grey's youth. Notice the squared brim of the French hood and the raised neckline with ruffles.

*Both J. Stephan Edwards and Lee Porritt (The Beaufort Miniature Portrait – Lady Jane Grey Revisited) dates the Fitzwilliam Portrait to the middle of the 1550's, due to the flat crown of the French hood and the standing collar of the outer partlet (the black velvet piece across her shoulders, tied under the arms), which strongly indicate the mid-1550's, and the frill seen at the neck which by the mid-1550's had grown in size and had begun to surround the face.

(For my identification of the sitter in this painting as Katherine Brydges, Lady Dudley, please see my The Fitzwilliam Portrait page. Reasons for identification: The lady in the Fitzwilliam Portrait is also portrayed in a miniature by Levina Teerlinc from around 1560 now in the Victoria and Albert Museum. Katherine Brydges, Lady Dudley was a lady-in-waiting to both Mary I Tudor and Elizabeth I Tudor, and would therefore have been in the perfect position to be an object of portraits done by court painters Hans Eworth and Levina Teerlinc. Furthermore, she was born in c.1524, being in her early thirties when the Fitzwilliam Portrait was painted, and in perfect keeping with the age of the lady in the portrait. She was married in either late 1555 or early 1556 to Edward Sutton, 4th Baron Dudley, in a match encouraged by Queen Mary, making it likely that this was a wedding portrait, as that date matches perfectly with the assessment of both J. Stephan Edwards and Lee Porritt that this portrait dates to the middle of the 1550's. Lastly, the embroidery of the lady's collar has a pattern that can be found again on other members of the Brydges family. It is probably a stylised version of a bridge, a play on the family name of Bridges. There is also the matter of the girdle prayer book the lady is holding in the portrait. It is decorated with what appears to be a D. Which would correspond with her new married name of Dudley. Two years previously Lady Jane Grey Dudley, daughter of the Marquess of Dorset had left her beloved girdle prayer book to Sir John Brydges, Lieutenant of the Tower of London. He was Katherine's father.)

Bess of Hardwick

1550’s

Mary I

1557[1][2][3]

Hans Eworth

Dickinson Private Advisors & Fine Art Dealers

Portrait of an Unknown Lady

1557

Hans Eworth

Oil on panel | 23 ½ x 19 in. (59.7 x 48.3 cm)

The Tate Gallery

Perhaps Anne Wootton alias Woodhouse alias Reppes, Mrs. Bassingbourne Gawdy[4]

Unknown Lady, Formerly Lady Anne Penruddocke[5]

1557

Hans Eworth

Oil on Panel | 42 x 31 in.

Howard de Walden Collection, London

Amy Robsart Dudley

Called Lady Jane Grey

Second half of the second half of the 1550's

Levina Teerlinc

Watercolour on vellum applied to card

© Private Collection

The Beaufort Miniature

(For my identification of the sitter in this painting as Amy Robsart Dudley, please see my The Yale Miniature page. Reasons for identification: The lady in the Beaufort Miniature is the same one as the lady in the Yale Miniature. I have always found the arguments that the lady in the Yale Miniature is Amy Robsart persuasive.)

Portrait of Mary Kytson, Lady Darcy of Chiche, later Lady Rivers

c. 1590

British School

The Tate Gallery

Mary Rogers, Lady Harington

1592

Marcus Gheeraerts II

The Tate Gallery

Portrait of an Aristocratic Lady wearing a lace veil, ruff and elaborate jewel encrusted tunic holding a book

1593

Follower George Gower

Dorothy, Wife of Henry Huddleston, Aged 17

1594

St. Edmund's College, University of Cambridge

Margaret Dormer, Lady Constable

1599

Marcus Gheeraerts the Younger

Burton Constable Hall -Skirlaugh East Yorkshire UK

A lady traditionally called Lady Cobham

Rowland Lockey

Mary Browne, Lady St. John and Lady Petre, Aged 19

c. 1621

Notes:

[1] That must be this portrait: «Indeed, despite her own affinity for things Spanish, Mary was herself depicted wearing a much narrower – and notably free-form and unstarched – Spanish-style ruff only once.2 She more commonly wore the standing-collared partlet seen in so many of the other portraits included in this study. Even in portraits that depict Mary wearing a chemise under her partlet, the collar usually has a loosely flowing and unstarched simple ruffle.» (J. Stephan Edwards, A Queen of a New Invention, p.114) «2 Queen Mary I, Hans Eworth, 1557, oil on wood panel, 8 x 6 1/2 in., private collection.» (J. Stephan Edwards, A Queen of a New Invention, p.115)

Dickinson Private Advisors & Fine Art Dealers does specify that the portrait is oil on panel, measuring 22 x 17.3 cm. (8⅝ x 6¾ in.).

This is almost exactly the exact measurements mentioned by J. Stephan Edwards, but not quite.

Another possibility is that J. Stephan Edwards is referring to the portrait in footnote 2.

These two portraits are almost (but not quite) identical. Mary is dressed in the same outfit, however, and this portrait too is dated to 1557.

[2] Of Crymsen Tissue: The Construction of a Queen. Identity, Legitimacy and the Wardrobe of Mary Tudor

This portrait is almost (but not quite) identical. Mary is dressed in the same outfit, however, and this portrait too is dated to 1557.

[3] This excellent overview over the portraits of Hans Eworth dates both portraits to 1557. It has this portrait as being 8 x 6 ½ inches, while the one that we only have a black and white photograph of as being 9 ⅞ x 7 ½ inches, so it appears to be this portrait J. Stephan Edwards meant. 

[4] Hope Walker and Kate Emerson suggest that sitter in Unknown Lady, Formerly Lady Anne Penruddocke may in fact be Anne Wootton alias Woodhouse alias Reppes, Mrs. Bassingbourne Gawdy:

ANNE WOTTON (1536 – June 1588)

Anne Wotton was the only daughter and heir of John Wotton (Wooten/Wootton) of North Tudenham, Norfolk (d. 14 November 1545) and Elizabeth Bardwell and the granddaughter of the John Wotton who, sometime after 1541, married Mary Neville, Lady Dacre as her second husband. In 1545, Anne’s wardship was held by John Millicent, who sold it to Sir Anthony Rouse. In 1547, Rouse sold it to William Woodhouse. In 1554, Anne married Sir Thomas Woodhouse of Waxham (1535–1556). In 1557, she married Henry Reppes or Repps of Mendham, Suffolk (1509 – 10 February 1558). Both marriages were childless. On 25 September 1558 she married Bassingborne Gawdy of West Harling, Norfolk (1534 – 20 January 1589/90). Their children were Bassingborne (19 May 1560 – 3 May 1606) and Philip (13 July 1562 – 27 May 1617). Portraits: Hans Eworth, who painted two portraits of Lady Neville, is also said to have painted portraits of Anne and her third husband (now lost); Anne Wotton may be the subject of the portrait called “Lady Anne Penruddocke” which gives the age of the sitter as 20 in 1557.

Anne Wotton – A Who's Who of Tudor Women

Hope Walker suggests this in Hans Eworth Catalogue Raisonné: Catalogue Overview – Monogrammed & Documented Works.

In the article The Painter HE (‘ Hans Eworth.’) by Lionel Cust in the Second Annual Volume of the Walpole Society the following description is given of two portraits of Bassingbourne Gawdy and his wife:

«1557 BASSINGBORNE GAWDY and ANNE WOOTTON his wife.

Vertue (Brit. Mus. Add. MS. 23070, fo. 75) notes: 'Amongst old paintings at Bow left by Mr. Le Neve Norroy at his house there. Bassingborne Gawdy Esq. on board, small life, ætatis 22. The mark of the painter HE. 1557 ... his wife ætat 20. HE. the mark of the Painter also. These two pictures, as they are not half so big as the life, are drawn with a pretty good spirit and firm manner, the colouring faded.'

Bassingborne Gawdy of Mendham, Norfolk, son of Thomas Gawdy of Redenhall, Norfolk, Serjeant-at-law, and Anne Bassingborne his wife, married in 1558 Anne, daughter of John Wootton of Tudenham and Elizabeth Bardwell his wife, and grand-daughter of John Wootton of Tudenham, whose second wife was Mary Nevill, Baroness Dacre (see above). Anne Wootton had been previously married, first to Thomas Wodehouse, and secondly to Henry Repps.»

That does seem to be a very good match with portrait of an Unknown Lady, Formerly Lady Anne Penruddocke.

[5] See On the Portrait of ‘Lady Anne Pendruddocke’ in a Private London Collection, Compiled by Hope Walker, MPhil/PhD Candidate | The Courtauld Institute of Art

Mary Fitzalan, Duchess of Norfolk (1540-1557) Eighteenth Century

1556

English School

Unknown Lady (Perhaps Lady Jane Grey) 

Formerly Mary Tudor when Princess

C. 1550-5

Hans Eworth

The Fitzwilliam Museum Portrait

The fashions of Lady Jane Grey's youth. Notice the squared brim of the French hood and the raised neckline with ruffles.

Bess of Hardwick

1550's

Unknown Woman

1557

Hans Eworth 

Mary Neville, Lady Dacre; Gregory Fiennes, 10th Baron Dacre

1559

NPG 6855

Hans Eworth

Elizabeth FitzGerald, Countess of Lincoln

1560

Steven van der Meulen

Agecroft Hall, Richmond, Virginia

Elizabeth Leyburn, Duchess of Norfolk

C.1560

Attributed to Hans Eworth