Titan Fine Art has dated this piece to the 17th Century.
The classical elements portray a sense of a cultivation and a learned lady, and the architecture, exuberant draperies, and large black diamond and pearl jewels portray wealth; the sitter was a paragon of the elite society that she belonged to. The confident rendering of the dress and the thickly drawn copious hair are hallmarks of Van der Vaart’s work.
Inscribed lower left "Eliz. Wife of Hon. James Bertie, Dau. of Geo. 7th Ld. Willoughby, 1692 of Parham". Born Elizabeth Willoughby on 26th April 1673, the sitter was the only surviving daughter of the English peer, George Willoughby, 7th Baron Willoughby of Parham (1636-1674), a member of an ancient English family and Elizabeth inherited a great estate.
On 5th January 1692, the same year in which the portrait was painted, Lady Elizabeth married the Honorable James Bertie of Stanwell (c.1674-1735), son of James Bertie, 1st Earl of Abingdon; the Bertie family were prominent landowners in the Oxford area and were involved in the political history of England. The portrait was probably commissioned to mark the sitter’s marriage in 1692.
Lady Elizabeth gave birth to fourteen children. James Bertie became the 2nd Earl of Abingdon and inherited the family estate of Wytham Abbey in 1699. Our sitter died in 1715 and Sir George later married Elizabeth Calvert. Sir George died in 1735 and was succeeded by his son Willoughby who afterwards became the third Earl of Abingdon.
Our portrait remained with the family for over 230 years until the 7th Earl of Abingdon sold it as part of the contents of Wytham Abbey in 1923, along with many other family pictures and heirlooms.
Wytham Abbey's was constructed circa 1485. This sprawling, Grade I-listed abbey still has plenty of features from its original era: there is a Tudor-arched doorway, oriel windows, stained glass panels, turrets and battlements.
Van der Vaart was a pupil of Thomas Wijck and was working in Haarlem as early as 1670. He moved to England in 1673/1674 and worked in London painting landscapes, figures, and still life’s. He painted draperies and landscapes for the fashionable Willem Wissing, who was a pupil and former collaborator of the court portrait painter Sir Peter Lely, eventually taking over Wissing’s own studio after that artist’s death in 1687. Jan may also have been the ‘Landervart’ who together with Wissing and others completed many of Lely’s unfinished studio paintings after his death.
In 1693 and 1694 he is known to have lived in Bedford House, Covent Garden, London. In 1713 he sold his collection and established a picture restoration business in 1713, a business in which his nephew continued after his death. He was buried in St Pauls Church, Covent Garden, London on 30th March 1727.
Provenance:
The Sitter (probably commissioned to mark the occasion of her marriage in 1692);
Thence by descent, Montagu Arthur Bertie, 7th Earl of Abingdon (1836-1928) Wytham Abbey;
Sotheby & Co., London, 7 June 1928, “Valuable Pictures by Old Masters, The Property of the Right Hon. The Earl of Abingdon, Removed from Wytham Abbey near Oxford” (lot 73. School of Lely, Elizabeth wife of the Hon. James Bertie, Daughter of George, 7th Lord Willoughby, 1692, in red dress with blue scarf, seated three quarter length, landscape in distance, 50x40 in);
Private Collection, USA
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Titan Fine Art has dated this piece to the 17th Century.
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Portrait of Lady Elizabeth Bertie Nee Willoughby, Inscribed 1692; Attributed to Jan Van Der Vaart (C.1647-1727), Oil on Canvas Painting
