STUDIO OF SIR PETER LELY | PORTRAIT OF ANNE HYDE, DUCHESS OF YORK AND ALBANY (1637-1671), FULL-LENGTH, IN A BLUE GOWN TRIMMED WITH ERMINE, STANDING BEFORE A GOLD CURTAIN WITH HER CROWN ON A TABLE

Probably commissioned by Edward Hyde, 1^st Earl of Clarendon (1609-1674), the sitter’s father;

Thence by descent to George Herbert Hyde Villiers, 6^th Earl of Clarendon (1877-1955);

By whom sold ("Property of the Rt. Hon. the Earl of Clarendon"), London, Christie's, 4 July 1924, lot 65 (as ‘Lely’) [1];

James W. DeLasho;

By whose estate sold ("Property from the Estate of James W. DeLasho"), Hudson, Stair Galleries, 3 November 2018, lot 231;

There acquired. 

1. In the Frick Digital Collections. See: https://digitalcollections.frick.org/digico/#/details/bibRecordNumber/b13948726/Photoarchive

This portrait is inspired by the multiple prototypes Sir Peter Lely painted of Anne Hyde, eldest daughter of Sir Edward Hyde (1609–1674), 1st Earl of Clarendon, and Frances, daughter of Sir Thomas Aylesbury, bt (d. 1667). While her father served at Charles II's court in Paris, Anne and her mother settled in the Low Countries. Anne was introduced to her future husband, James, Duke of York and later King James II, through his sister Princess Mary. James fell very much in love with Anne, and the two secretly married in September 1660, despite hesitations from James's mother, Queen Henrietta Maria who loathed Anne's family, and his brother, Charles who was concerned with the implications James's choice of wife had during the Restoration of the monarchy.

While married, Anne played a key role in the political life of her husband, and exercised a strong influence over him. As Pepys noted: 'the duke of York, in all things but his cod-piece, is led by the nose by his wife' ^[1]. They had eight children, two of whom later became queens of Britain: Mary and Anne.

^1. S. Pepys and M. Bright, in H.B. Wheatley (ed.), The Diary of Samuel Pepys, M.A., F.R.S.: Clerk of the Acts and Secretary to the Admiralty, vol. VIII, London 1898, p. 127.