CORNELIUS JOHNSON | PORTRAIT OF A GENTLEMAN, BUST LENGTH, IN A PAINTED OVAL

With Lane Fine Art, London;

From whom acquired 10 October 1999.

A. J. Finberg, "A Chronological List of Portraits by Cornelius Johnson, or Jonson", in The Walpole Society, vol. X, Oxford 1922, p. 24, cat. no. 61 (as signed and dated C. J. fecit. 1635. and possibly a posthumous portrait of Sir Edward Cary, father of the 1st Viscount copied or adapted by Johnson from an earlier original), reproduced fig. XLV.

While the signature and date Finberg referenced (see Literature) are no longer visible in this painting, Professor Karen Hearn endorses the attribution to Cornelius Johnson on the basis of photographs and dates this painting to circa 1625.

Professor Hearn finds it unlikely that the elderly sitter in this portrait is Henry Cary, 1st Viscount of Falkland (1576-1633), since he would have only been 50 years in 1625. Finberg, who also doubts this painting depicts Henry Cary, presents the possibility of it being a posthumous portrait of his father, Sir Edward Cary (1540-1618), either copied or adapted by Johnson from an earlier original.