Portrait of a Lady

When the “Portrait of a Lady” was acquired by the Fisher Gallery in 1939 it was thought to represent Lady Lucy Harington, Countess of Bedford, wearing a costume for a Bal Masque. The attribution was to a very famous personage of Jacobean England, a well-known patron of artists and poets. Unfortunately, the resemblance of this sitter is not close enough to allow an attribution to the Countess. Nevertheless, the “Portrait of a Lady” is a good representative portrait of its period and of the style of Marcus Gheeraerts the Younger to whom it has been assigned by scholars.

Several elements mark this as a fashionable Jacobean portrait. The mask-like, heavily painted face of the subject is characteristic of the portrayals of Queen Elizabeth I, a type of depiction which became a fashion for much of Jacobean portraiture whether or not the subject was from the Royal House or of the titled gentry. Further placing this portrait in the Jacobean period is the large ruff collar and cuffs. These linen ruffs were wired and separated by drops of wax in order to frame the head of the wearer. A contemporary historian has noted that the collar was meant to set off the head as the "seat of learning’’ in this era. (Edward Maeder, unpublished opinion, Los Angeles County Museum of Art)

Marcus Gheeraerts was the son of Marcus Gheeraerts the Elder, a Flemish painter and engraver, and a pupil of Lucas de Herre. The younger Gheeraerts continued the tradition of his father by painting various court portraits of Elizabeth I and other European royalty. Anne of Denmark was among those he served.

Although Gheeraerts the Younger is not recorded as having studied with miniaturists, his family situation does suggest the possibility of their influence: his sister, Sarah, married Isaac Oliver, the English miniaturist. Oliver's style like Gheeraerts' is also typified by elaborate clothing patterns for both men and women. One curious element that is worth noting is the facial expression of the sitter. The lady in the Elizabeth Holmes Fisher Collection painting is smiling and according to Oliver Millar, "Gheeraerts is one of the few portrait painters which allowed his sitters to smile ...” (Oliver Millar, "Barbara, Lady Sidney, with Six Children,” In The Treasure Houses of Britain: Five Hundred Years of Art Patronage and Collecting, 1985, 130).

Catalog excerpt from "A Selection of British Paintings,” from the Fisher Gallery Collection (1600 – 1800). Entry by David W. White. (Los Angeles: USC Fisher Museum of Art, 1988), 14.