Attributed to Marcus Gheeraerts II (c.1561-c.1635)
Attributed to Marcus Gheeraerts II (c.1561-c.1635)

Portrait of Susanna Temple, later Lady Lister (1600-1669), full-length, in a red dress, beside a table with a pair of gloves, in an interior

Details
Attributed to Marcus Gheeraerts II (c.1561-c.1635)
Portrait of Susanna Temple, later Lady Lister (1600-1669), full-length, in a red dress, beside a table with a pair of gloves, in an interior
inscribed and dated 'AEtatis Suae 21/1621' (centre left)
oil on canvas
77¼ x 43½ in. (196.1 x 110.4 cm.)
Provenance
The sitter's daughter Susanna, who married George Gregory of Harlaxton, Lincolnshire, in 1664, and by descent to the vendor.
Literature
presumably Rev. H.L.L. Denny, Memorials of an Ancient House, Edinburgh, 1913, p. 215, note 5 ('There is a fine life-size full-length picture, evidently of this Lady Lister, in possession of Lady Evelyn Lister').

Lot Essay

The sitter was the daughter of Sir Alexander Temple (1583-1629) of St. Mary's Hoo, Kent, and Long House, Chadwell, Essex. She married first, in 1627, Sir Gifford Thornhurst of Agnes Court, Kent, who died two months later. Their daughter Frances was the mother of Sarah, wife of John Churchill, 1st Duke of Marlborough. In 1633 Susanna married Sir Martin Lister of Thorpe Arnold, Leicestershire, by whom she had ten children. Their second son, Martin, was a celebrated zoologist and botanist who became physician-in-ordinary to Queen Anne. Susanna was buried at Burwell, Lincolnshire on 28 November 1669. Sir Martin died the following year and was succeeded by their eldest son, Michael.

A bust-length portrait of the sitter by Cornelis Johnson, signed and dated 1620, is in the Tate Gallery, London (T03250).

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