Lady Essex (Rich) Finch, later Countess of Nottingham

Maker Peter Lely (Dutch, 1618 - 1680, active in England)

SitterSitter: Lady Essex (Rich) Finch, later Countess of Nottingham (British, 1652 - 1684)

Collections

British Painting Highlights

ClassificationsPAINTINGS

Dateca. 1675

Mediumoil on canvas

Dimensions46 x 37 7/8 in. (116.8 x 96.2 cm.) frame: 58 × 50 × 3 1/2 in. (147.3 × 127 × 8.9 cm.)

DescriptionIn this portrait, Lady Essex is seated in an open landscape, with her head turned slightly to her right. The sitter wears a low-cut white chemise under a gold silk robe with a light blue silk cape attached at her shoulder by a jeweled brooch.

Credit LineThe Huntington Library, Art Museum, and Botanical Gardens

Status

On view

Label TextLady Essex is dressed informally in a loose-fitting white garment, without a corset. The body-revealing effect of the fabrics specifically references the treatment of drapery in Greek sculpture and Italian Renaissance art. Although she wears a costume used by Lely in his studio, similar garments would have been worn in front of others by women like Lady Essex as a way of showing their elite status at court. In the sensual undress of his female sitters, Lely follows a trend started by van Dyck, an artist whose work he collected.

Bibliography

British paintings at the Huntington

Object number51.13