The sitter, traditionally known as Lady Pakington, looks confidentally at the viewer, her hair, pearls and silk clothing the last word in fashion at the time.
DOROTHY COVENTRY (1623-1679) was the daughter of Sir Thomas Coventry and Elizabeth Aldersley. Sir Thomas was Keeper of the Great Seal and a Privy Counsellor.
Dorothy married Sir John Pakington of Westwood, Worcestershire. This magnificent country house remained in the family from the time of Henry VIII intill 1906. (see image 5).
Sir John was imprisoned in the Tower of London by Parliament for his Royalist convictions; he was fined the colossal sum of £5000 and had his estate confiscated and his Buckinghamshire house was demolished.
Undeterred, on his release, he fought in the Battle of Worcester in 1651 where he was captured and fined again...this time £7670.
After the Restoration he became MP for worcestershire.
Like her husband, a fervent Royalist, Dorothy shared in the circulation of religious and philosophical manuscripts around the King's chaplain Henry Hammond. She was thought by her contempories to be the authoress of "The Whole Duty of Man".
("The Whole Duty of Man" is an English Protestant devotional work, first published anonymously, with an introduction by Henry Hammond, in 1658. It was both popular and influential for two centuries, in the Anglican tradition it helped to define.
The consensus view of modern scholars is that the likely author was Richard Allestree, but at the time of publication (towards the end of the Interregnum) the Royalist High Church tradition it represents was a politically dangerous position. The authorship was well concealed.)
Lady Pakington is buried in the church at Hampton Lovett, Worcestershire, her memorial is inscribed at the foot of a monument to her husband.
THEODORE RUSSELL (1614-1689)
Aliases: Theodore Rousel; Theodore Rousseel; Theodore Roussel; Theodore Russel.
Born in London, his father, Nicasius, was a goldsmith and jeweller, who left Bruges for England about 1573 and settled in the parish of St Anne, Blackfriars, London; his second wife, Theodore’s mother, was the sister of Cornelis Jonson van Ceulen.
The Russells were connected with the Gheeraerts, de Critz and Oliver families. Theodore’s son, Anthony Russell, who provided George Vertue with information concerning 17th-century artists, stated that Theodore had studied under Jonson and van Dyck, had been employed by such patrons as the 3rd Earl of Essex and the 1st Earl of Holland, and ‘was a lover of ease & his Bottle’.
SIZE: 21 x 18 inches inc. frame.
PROVENANCE: English private collection for many years.
VERSO:old ink inscription: 'Lady Pakington, daughter of the Lord Keeper Coventry, Authoress of the Whole Duty of Man'
Roy and nadine precious: specialists in portraiture from the 16th to the 20th century. Established in 1972.
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Sold....portrait of Dorothy Coventry, Lady Pakington C.1650: Attributed to Theodore Russell.
