Old Masters Day Auction
Old Masters Day Auction
The Property of a Private Collector
Sir Godfrey Kneller, Bt.
Portrait of Lady Elizabeth Cromwell (1674–1709), three-quarter-length, as a shepherdess seated in a landscape, holding a floral garland, a lamb by her side
Lot Closed
July 7, 01:37 PM GMT
Estimate
12,000 - 18,000 GBP
Lot Details
Description
The Property of a Private Collector
Sir Godfrey Kneller, Bt.
Lübeck 1646 - 1723 London
Portrait of Lady Elizabeth Cromwell (1674–1709), three-quarter-length, as a shepherdess seated in a landscape, holding a floral garland, a lamb by her side
signed centre left: G. Kneller Eques
oil on canvas
unframed: 125.7 x 101.8 cm.; 49½ x 40⅛ in.
framed: 148.2 x 125.5 cm.; 58½ x 49½ in.
Anonymous sale, London, Sotheby's, 12 April 1995, lot 32;
Where acquired by the present owner.
This newly identified portrait depicts Lady Elizabeth Southwell (née Cromwell, 1674–1709), wife of Edward Southwell (1671–1730), a distinguished lawyer and politician. Sir Godfrey Kneller appears to have become good friends with the Southwell family and is even recorded as having spent Christmas with them in their home at Kings Weston, near Bristol, in 1685.1 Lady Elizabeth Southwell was a constant patron of Kneller and is known to have sat to him a number of times. She often appears in the guise of figures such as Diana (Kings Weston House, Bristol), Saint Cecilia (property of the Hilda Inge Will Trustees) or as a shepherdess, as is the case in the present portrait. Eight other portraits by Kneller of this sitter have been recorded, dating between 1699 and 1706; the present work is also likely to date to this period.
1 E. Black, ‘Sir Godfrey Kneller and the Southwell and Cromwell families’, in People of Down 2008: Down Survey 2008 Yearbook of Down County Museum, M. Lesley Simpson (ed.), Downpatrick 2008, p. 9.