Sold....portrait of Margaret Dodding 1629; Follower of Gheeraerts

Oil on canvas in 19th century frame.

The pose used by Margaret Dodding was one much favoured by Gheeraerts and his followers and used for a long time. (see portraits of Lady Harrington 1592 and Lady Anne Ruthin 1632).

She holds a book, probably a bible, in her left hand...this signifies not only her religious nature but also her literacy and wealth. In her right hand a fashionable and very costly silver mounted ostrich feather fan.

To the right of the sitter is the faint inscription "An. 1629" and an indistinct signature or monogram, possibly "JS" or "TS".

To the left of the sitter an 18th or 19th century inscription incorrectly reads "Margaret Dodding Daughter & Coheiress of Wm. Sandys Esqr. of Graythwaite and Conishead 1569."

In fact the lady depicted in this charming Jacobean portrait is her grand-daughter Margaret; this portrait, painted in 1629, when the sitter was 23 probably celebrates her betrothal to Richard Hutton.

The Sandys family originate from Burgh-on-Sands on the Solway from where they take their name (originally Sandes).

The Augustinian Conishead Priory was founded in the 12th century. In 1537 it was seized by the crown under the Act of Suppression. A large country house was built on the site.

In 1540 the estate was granted by the King to William Stanley, Lord Mounteagle. Ownership then passed quickly through the Paget and Machell families and in 1548 to one of the early iron masters, William Sandys of Colton Hall. As Receiver General of Furness, Sandys fell victim to the antagonism towards the Crown in the region and in 1558 he was ‘very riotously murdered at Conishead’ in front of his house.

The estate then passed to the Phillipsons and later to the Dodding family. In 1638, Sarah Dodding married John Braddyll of Portfield thus conveying Conishead to the Braddylls who made it their seat for almost two centuries. Five generations of Braddyls lived at Conishead between 1683 and 1847 during which time they established themselves as one of the great local families. (The fifth image shows Conishead as it is today).

MARCUS GHEERAERTS (also written as Gerards or Geerards) ( c. 1561/62 – 19 January 1636) was an artist of the Tudor court, He was brought to England as a child by his father Marcus Gheeraerts the Elder, also a painter. He became a fashionable portraitist in the last decade of the reign of Elizabeth I.

In the Jacobean Court in 1617 Gheeraerts' position began to decline as the result of competition from a new generation of immigrants. Anne of Denmark died in 1619, and although Gheeraerts was part of her funeral procession as "Queen's Painter", the Netherlander Paul van Somer had likely displaced him as her chief portraitist some time before. For the last twenty years of his life Gheeraerts was employed chiefly by the country gentry and by academic sitters.

SIZE: 50 x 43.26 inches inc. frame.

PROVENANCE: by family descent.

Verso: a number of old labels.