Attributed to Sir Anthony van Dyck Antwerp 1599 - 1641 London

John Cocke, by whom sold on the 10th July 1699 to
Anthony, 21st Earl of Kent (1645-1702);
His son, Henry Grey, 1st Marquess and later 1st Duke of Kent and 2nd Baron Lucas (1671-1740), in whose house in St. James's Square seen by Vertue (see Literature);
Thence by descent to Jemima, Marchioness Grey and Baroness Lucas (1722-1797), granddaughter of Henry, Duke of Kent and later wife of Philip, 2nd Earl of Hardwicke (d. 1790), in whose collection seen by Walpole in 1761 and Pennant in 1782 (see Literature);
Her great nephew, Thomas Philip, Earl de Grey and 6th Baron Lucas (1781-1859);
His daughter Anne, Baroness Lucas, and later wife of George, 6th Earl Cowper, Panshanger, Hertfordshire;
Francis, 7th Earl Cowper, 7th Baron Lucas and 10th Baron Dingwall (1834-1905), Panshanger, Hertfordshire;
His nephew Auberon Thomas Herbert, 8th Baron Lucas and 11th Baron Dingwall (1876-1916);
His sister the Right Honourable Lady Lucas and Dingwall, Woodystes, Salisbury, Wiltshire, from 1919 until sold in these Rooms, 24 June 1970, lot 14, for £26,000 to Baer;
With David M. Koetser, Zurich,  from whom acquired by a European private collector;
Thence by inheritance to his widow, by whom sold in these Rooms, 8 July 1999, lot 74 (as Sir Anthony van Dyck), where acquired by the present owner.

T. Pennant, The Journey from Chester to London, 1782, p. 512, as depicting Henry, 18th Early of Kent (c.1583-1639), and hanging on the Staircase;
M.L. Boyle, Biographical Catalogue of the Portraits at Panshanger, 1885, p. 384, no. 4, as hanging in the Large Dining Room;
L. Cust, Anthony van Dyck, 1900, pp. 74, 259, no. 94;
A. von Wurzbach, Niederländisches Künstler-Lexikon, Vienna 1906, vol. I, p. 350;
A. Graves, A Century of Loan Exhibitions, London 1914, vol. IV, pp. 1513, 1536, no. 26;
'Horace Walpole's Journals of Visits to Country Seats etc.', ed. P. Toynbee, in The Walpole Society, vol. XVI, 1928, p. 40;
G. Glück, Klassiker der Kunst: Van Dyck, Stuttgart 1931, p. 350;
The Walpole Society, vol. XXII (Vertue Notebooks III), 1934, p. 47;
E. Larsen, L'opera completa di Van Dyck, Milan 1980, vol. II, p. 102, no. 693;
E. Larsen, The Paintings of Anthony van Dyck, Freren 1988, vol. II, pp. 213-4, no. 530;
H. Vey, in S.J. Barnes, N. De Poorter, O. Millar and H. Vey, Van Dyck - A complete catalogue of the paintings, New Haven and London, 2004, p. 368, under cat. no. III.151 (with incorrect sale date and lot number).

The identity of the sitter in this portrait has yet to be satisfactorily resolved.  Pennant (see Literature below) implausibly proposed that it represented Henry, 18th Earl of Kent (1583-1639).  Cust (see Literature below) was the first to suggest that he might be Emanuel Froackas Pereira y Pimentel, Conde de Feria, a commander in the Spanish Netherlands, by comparing it with the likeness engraved by Paulus Pontius for Van Dyck's Iconographie (for which see M. Mauquoy-Hendrickx, L'Iconographie d'Antoine Van Dyck, Brussels 1956, p. 210, no. 47), in which the sitter is shown at half-length wearing armour.  Although more recently endorsed by Larsen (see Literature below) this identification was not accepted by Glück or Vey (see Barnes et al., Literature below), and is not wholly convincing.  Another full-length portrait of Feria, by an unknown hand, is in the Akademie der Bildenden Künst in Vienna (inv. no. 651).  Whatever the identity of sitter, the portrait has been accepted as autograph by most scholars (see literatures below and in verbal communications), although Horst Vey considers it to be by another hand.

Not the least remarkable aspect of this portrait is its unbroken provenance stretching back almost exactly three hundred years.  The collection at Panshanger was one of the finest in England in the 19th century, and was described at length by Waagen (Treasures of Art in Great Britain, II, London 1854, pp. 7-17).  The collection was principally put together by George, 3rd Earl Cowper, British Minister in FLorence during the 1780s.  Amongst his most celebrated acquisitions were the two Raphaels that still bear his name, the Niccolini-Cowper Madonna and the Small Cowper Madonna, both now in the National Gallery of Art, Washington.  This portrait was one of no less than eight works by or attributed to Van Dyck, including his spectacular group portrait of John, Count of Nassau-Seigen and his family now at Firle.