Portrait of James Stuart, 4th Duke of Lennox and 1st Duke of Richmond (1612-1655), full-length, wearing the star and Garter of the Order of the Garter, with his hound at his feet

Details

FOLLOWER OF SIR ANTHONY VAN DYCK
Portrait of James Stuart, 4th Duke of Lennox and 1st Duke of Richmond (1612-1655), full-length, wearing the star and Garter of the Order of the Garter, with his hound at his feet
oil on canvas
87 ¾ x 52 ¾ in. (222.8 x 134 cm.)
with identifying inscription 'Villers. Duke of Richmond' (lower left)

Please note that 100% of the hammer proceeds from this auction will be paid to the Sandys Trust, registered charity number: 1168357, with the exception of limited deductions towards sale costs across the auction which cannot be accurately calculated at this time, capped at a total of £10,000.

Provenance

By descent to Richard Hill, 7th Baron Sandys (1931-2013), Ombersley Court, Worcestershire.

Literature

J. Grego, Inventory of Pictures: Portraits, Paintings, etc., Ombersley MS., 1905, where listed in the Great Hall.
ONM / 1 / 2 / 7, journal entry for a visit to Ombersley Court, 25 August 1950, Oliver Millar Archive, Paul Mellon Centre, London, p. 24.
Ombersley Court Inventory, annotated Ombersley MS., June 1963, as 'School of Van Dyck', where listed in the Grand Hall.
Oliver Millar in S.J. Barnes, et al., Van Dyck. A Complete Catalogue of the Paintings, New Haven and London, 2004, p. 584, under no. IV.200.
Ombersley Court Catalogue of Pictures, undated, Ombersley MS., p. 8, as 'Van Dyck', where listed in the Central Hall.

Conditions of sale

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Lot Essay

James Stuart inherited the Scottish title of Duke of Lennox from his father in 1624, at the age of twelve. As his nearest male relative, the ageing King James I became his guardian. He was made a Gentleman of the Bedchamber in 1625 and was knighted in 1630. King Charles I appointed him a Privy Councillor in 1633 and in the same year installed him as a Knight of the Garter, England's highest order of chivalry. In 1637 he married Mary Villiers, only daughter of the King's favourite, George Villiers, 1st Duke of Buckingham. He was later raised to the English peerage as the 1st Duke of Richmond in 1641. During the English Civil War, in which three of his brothers died in the Royalist cause, he proved himself one of King Charles I's most loyal supporters, contributing enormous sums of money, and after the King's capitulation he was one of the five peers who offered themselves to Parliament for 'punishment' instead of the King - to no avail.

This painting relates to van Dyck's earliest and most celebrated portrait of the sitter, now in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York (inv. no. 89.15.16), which Oliver Millar hailed as 'one of the painter's most accomplished and beautifully executed English portraits' (2004, op. cit., p. 584). The composition recalls Titian's famous portrait of Charles V with a Hound, which was then in Charles I's collection (Museo del Prado, Madrid, inv no. P000409).

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