Venetia, Lady Digby, on her Deathbed

One of the greatest beauties and wits of her day (though with a rather racy reputation), Venetia was married to Sir Kenelm Digby, scholar, warrior and inventor. She died suddenly in May 1633, aged thirty-three, and was painted on her deathbed by Van Dyck, a friend of the family.

Digby intended the painting as a memorial to his wife - "It standeth all day over against my chaire and table...", he wrote, "and all night when I goe to my bedside, and by the faint light of candle, me thinkes I see her dead indeed."" Van Dyck ""hath altered or added nothing about it, excepting only a rose lying upon the hemme of the sheet..."