Lot 46*
Studio of Sir Anthony van Dyck(Antwerp 1599-1641 Blackfriars)Portrait of Lady Lucy Percy, three-quarter-length, in a white dress seated before a fountain
5 July 2023, 14:00 BST
London, New Bond Street£15,000 - £20,000
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Poppy Harvey-Jones
Head of Sale
Studio of Sir Anthony van Dyck (Antwerp 1599-1641 Blackfriars)
Portrait of Lady Lucy Percy, three-quarter-length, in a white dress seated before a fountain
oil on canvas
91.7 x 74cm (36 1/8 x 29 1/8in).
oil on canvas
91.7 x 74cm (36 1/8 x 29 1/8in).
Footnotes
The present portrait is related to, and on the same scale as, the right-hand side of van Dyck's double Portrait of Lady Dorothy Percy, Countess of Leicester and her sister, Lady Lucy Percy, Countess of Carlisle, which was probably painted circa 1638 for Lady Leicester or her husband. The heads of the two sisters are close to their single portraits, both of which are at Petworth (inv.no. NT 485068) and have also been dated to circa 1638, although intermediary sittings to the artist or his studio cannot be ruled out.
Lady Lucy Percy led a colourful life: imprisoned at one time in the Tower of London and involved in various intrigues, including the theft of some diamond studs that the French Queen Anne gave to the Duke of Buckingham, as a consequence of which she inspired the character of Milady de Winter in Alexandre Dumas' The Three Musketeers, which has been the subject of various popular films more recently. That story also seems to be why Horace Walpole acquired the double portrait of her and her sister, which at one time hung at Strawberry Hill.
