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Lot Essay
The present work can be dated to circa 1638, at about the same time that Van Dyck painted the magnificent double portrait of Lord John Stuart and his Brother, Lord Bernard Stuart (National Gallery, London). Executed during Van Dyck's second period in England and while he was at the height of his powers, these works poignantly evoke the transitory glamor of Charles I's court on the eve of the outbreak of the Civil War.
Coming from a prominent royalist family, Charles, Lord Strange was the eldest of the nine children of James, 7th Earl of Derby (1607-51) and his wife, Charlotte, daughter of Claude de Trémouille, Duke of Thouars, whom he married on 26 June 1626. James, 7th Earl of Derby was Member of Parliament for Liverpool, 1626 and Lord-Lieutenant of North Wales. One of Charles I's most ardent supporters, Derby was known as the 'Martyr Earl' for his courage and heroics during the Civil War. After the battle of Worcester in 1651 he saved the young Charles II's life by conducting him to Boscobel. Derby was subsequently captured, condemned as a traitor and executed. Horace Walpole wrote of him, 'Among the sufferers for King Charles the First none cast greater lustre on the cause'.
The sitter's mother, Charlotte, Countess of Derby became famous in her own right for bravely leading the gallant defence of Lathom House, Lancashire. Besieged by two thousand parliamentarians in 1644, she famously declared that rather than surrender, she and her children would set fire to the castle and perish in the flames. When the parliamentarians threatened to put a speedy end to the siege by introducing a new mortar, she organized a brilliant sortie by the garrison to capture the weapon. Finally relieved by Prince Rupert and his troops, the parliamentarians spread a rumor that the Countess, being a better soldier than her husband, had dressed herself in man's clothes and in this disguise conducted the defence. Having removed her children for safety to the Isle of Man, where the family owned estates, she was actively involved in the protection of that island in 1651.
Their eldest son, Charles, was born on 19 January 1628 and married in 1650, Dorothea Helena (d. 3 October 1674), a daughter of John Kirkhoven, Baron de Rupa of Holland, who was a maid-of-honor to the Queen of Bohemia. Charles took part in Sir George Booth's abortive rising in 1658, and was restored as eighth Earl of Derby on the reversal of his father's attainder at the Restoration. Charles was author of The Protestant Religion is a Sure Foundation of a True Christian (1668) and Truth Triumphant (1669). He died on 21 December 1672 and was buried at Ormskirk, being succeeded as ninth and tenth earls by his sons, William George Richard (1658?-1702) and James (d. 1736).
Van Dyck also painted a group portrait of the sitter's father, mother and sibling, James, 7th Earl of Derby, his lady and child (Frick Collection, New York).
The present portrait is first recorded as having been in the collection of Olga Valerianova Karnovich, Princess Paley (1866-1929), and her husband Grand Duke Paul of Russia (1860-1919), the son of Tsar Alexander II, at their palace in the park of Tsarskoye Selo, the summer residence of the Tsars of Russia. Grand Duke Paul was murdered by Red Guards at the Fortress of SS. Peter and Paul, Saint Petersburg on 30 January 1919; his wife, however, escaped the Revolution, fleeing to Paris; works of art from the Princess' collection were sold at auction in Paris, 5 December 1923, and at Christie's, London, 21 June and 23 July 1929. The present work was bought by Arthur Tooth and Sons in the first Christie's sale for the exceptional price of 4600 guineas. Also offered in this sale was a view by Bernardo Bellotto of The Campo Santi Giovanni e Paolo, Venice (now in the Museum of Fine Arts, Springfield, Massachusetts), which sold for 1785 guineas.
We are grateful to Sir Oliver Millar for confirming the attribution to van Dyck and for identifying the sitter on the basis of a transparency. He will include the painting in his forthcoming catalogue raisonné of Van Dyck's paintings.
Coming from a prominent royalist family, Charles, Lord Strange was the eldest of the nine children of James, 7th Earl of Derby (1607-51) and his wife, Charlotte, daughter of Claude de Trémouille, Duke of Thouars, whom he married on 26 June 1626. James, 7th Earl of Derby was Member of Parliament for Liverpool, 1626 and Lord-Lieutenant of North Wales. One of Charles I's most ardent supporters, Derby was known as the 'Martyr Earl' for his courage and heroics during the Civil War. After the battle of Worcester in 1651 he saved the young Charles II's life by conducting him to Boscobel. Derby was subsequently captured, condemned as a traitor and executed. Horace Walpole wrote of him, 'Among the sufferers for King Charles the First none cast greater lustre on the cause'.
The sitter's mother, Charlotte, Countess of Derby became famous in her own right for bravely leading the gallant defence of Lathom House, Lancashire. Besieged by two thousand parliamentarians in 1644, she famously declared that rather than surrender, she and her children would set fire to the castle and perish in the flames. When the parliamentarians threatened to put a speedy end to the siege by introducing a new mortar, she organized a brilliant sortie by the garrison to capture the weapon. Finally relieved by Prince Rupert and his troops, the parliamentarians spread a rumor that the Countess, being a better soldier than her husband, had dressed herself in man's clothes and in this disguise conducted the defence. Having removed her children for safety to the Isle of Man, where the family owned estates, she was actively involved in the protection of that island in 1651.
Their eldest son, Charles, was born on 19 January 1628 and married in 1650, Dorothea Helena (d. 3 October 1674), a daughter of John Kirkhoven, Baron de Rupa of Holland, who was a maid-of-honor to the Queen of Bohemia. Charles took part in Sir George Booth's abortive rising in 1658, and was restored as eighth Earl of Derby on the reversal of his father's attainder at the Restoration. Charles was author of The Protestant Religion is a Sure Foundation of a True Christian (1668) and Truth Triumphant (1669). He died on 21 December 1672 and was buried at Ormskirk, being succeeded as ninth and tenth earls by his sons, William George Richard (1658?-1702) and James (d. 1736).
Van Dyck also painted a group portrait of the sitter's father, mother and sibling, James, 7th Earl of Derby, his lady and child (Frick Collection, New York).
The present portrait is first recorded as having been in the collection of Olga Valerianova Karnovich, Princess Paley (1866-1929), and her husband Grand Duke Paul of Russia (1860-1919), the son of Tsar Alexander II, at their palace in the park of Tsarskoye Selo, the summer residence of the Tsars of Russia. Grand Duke Paul was murdered by Red Guards at the Fortress of SS. Peter and Paul, Saint Petersburg on 30 January 1919; his wife, however, escaped the Revolution, fleeing to Paris; works of art from the Princess' collection were sold at auction in Paris, 5 December 1923, and at Christie's, London, 21 June and 23 July 1929. The present work was bought by Arthur Tooth and Sons in the first Christie's sale for the exceptional price of 4600 guineas. Also offered in this sale was a view by Bernardo Bellotto of The Campo Santi Giovanni e Paolo, Venice (now in the Museum of Fine Arts, Springfield, Massachusetts), which sold for 1785 guineas.
We are grateful to Sir Oliver Millar for confirming the attribution to van Dyck and for identifying the sitter on the basis of a transparency. He will include the painting in his forthcoming catalogue raisonné of Van Dyck's paintings.