Old Masters Day Sale

Old Masters Day Sale

Property from the Estate of the Rt. Hon. The Countess of Sutherland

Cornelius Johnson (also known as Cornelis Janssens van Ceulen)

Portrait of Katherine Lady Leveson (1598-1674), half-length, wearing a black and white dress, a white ruff and a pearl rope

Lot Closed

July 8, 01:34 PM GMT

Estimate

15,000 - 20,000 GBP

Lot Details

Description

Property from the Estate of the Rt. Hon. The Countess of Sutherland

Cornelius Johnson (also known as Cornelis Janssens van Ceulen)

London 1593 - 1661 Utrecht

Portrait of Katherine Lady Leveson (1598-1674), half-length, wearing a black and white dress, a white ruff and a pearl rope


signed and dated lower right: C.J. fecit / 1625

oil on oak panel, in a painted oval

unframed: 77.5 x 60.5 cm.; 30½ x 23¾ in.

framed: 91.1 x 78.3 cm.; 35⅞ x 30⅞ in.

Possibly by descent in the family of the sitter;
Sutherland-Leveson-Gower collection, Lilleshall, Shropshire, by 1921;
Thence by descent.
A.J. Finberg, 'A Chronological List of Portraits by Cornelius Jonson', in The Walpole Society, vol. X, 1921-22, p. 11, cat. no. 15, reproduced plate X.

Katherine Leveson was the daughter of the explorer Sir Robert Dudley (1574-1649), illegitimate son of Robert Dudley, 1st Earl of Leicester (1532-88) and favourite of Elizabeth I, by his first wife, Alice (b. 1579), daughter of Sir Thomas Leigh of Stoneleigh. She married Sir Richard Leveson (1598-1661) in 1629, four years after this portrait was painted. The spray of small white roses in her hair, here, were probably intended to symbolise innocence and purity.