THOMAS HUDSON | Portrait of Mary Ffolkes, née Browne (1721-73), three-quarter-length, seated wearing a white satin dress

Commissioned by Sir William Browne (1692-1774), London;

Thence by descent to the sitter;

Thence by descent in the Ffolkes family, Hillington Hall, Norfolk, to Sir Robert Ffolkes, 7th Bt. (b. 1943), until at least 1979;

Anonymous sale, Stansted Mountfitchet, Sworders, 10 March 2015, lot 200.

Prince F. Duleep Singh, Portraits in Norfolk Houses, Norwich 1928, vol. I, p. 248, cat. no. 22;

E. Davies King, The Life and Works of Thomas Hudson, doctoral diss., Courtauld Institute, University of London 1938, cat. no. 84;

E. Gross Miles, Thomas Hudson (1701-79): Portraitist to the British Establishment, doctoral diss., Yale University 1976, p. 75, cat. no. 57, reproduced plate 185;

Kenwood House, Thomas Hudson 1701-1779. Portrait painter and collector, exh. cat., London 1979, under cat. no. 25.

Mary Ffolkes was the daughter of the wealthy doctor, Sir William Browne and Mary Greene of Lynn, Norfolk (today King’s Lynn). Browne, who was President of the Royal College of Physicians from 1765-66, commissioned Hudson to paint portraits of his wife and daughter, and was himself portrayed by the artist on three occasions.¹ Mary married William Ffolkes (d. 1773), of Hillington Hall, Norfolk, in 1747.

1 Portraits of Sir William and Mary were also sold in 2015 (lots 198 and 199, see Provenance). The other portraits of Sir William are in the collection of Sir Robert Ffolkes, 7th Bt., and the Royal College of Physicians, London, inv. no. X71: https://artuk.org/discover/artworks/sir-william-browne-16921774-192379