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Lot Essay
The sitter in this portrait has traditionally been identified as Frederick, Duke of Schomberg (1615-1690). The families of the Dukes of Schomberg and the Dukes of Leeds were connected through the marriage of Amelia Baroness Conyers, only daughter of Robert D'Arcy, 4th Earl of Holdernesse, the great-great-grandson of the 1st Duke of Schomberg, to Francis Godolphin Osborne, 5th Duke of Leeds, in 1773. The frame, which is probably the original, with its 'S' cipher and ducal coronet, appears to support an identification as of the sitter as one of the Dukes of Schomberg. The traditional identification of the sitter as the 1st Duke, however, appears unlikely on the basis that the portrait is dateable, on stylistic grounds, to circa 1700 by which time the 1st Duke of Schomberg was dead. An earlier portrait of the 1st Duke by Dahl, of 1689, shows an older looking man and also shows the Duke wearing the Order of the Garter to which he was entitled from 3 April 1689 (see W. Nisser, Michael Dahl and his Contemporaries, Uppsala, 1927, p. 40, no. 129, pl. VI). While it is possible that the picture is an unrecorded posthumous portrait of the 1st Duke, this seems unlikely as the sitter is not shown wearing the Garter. It appears more likely that the sitter is the 1st Duke's son, Meinhardt, Duke of Leinster and 3rd Duke of Schomberg (1641-1719), who came to England in 1689, and was also a distinguished professional soldier, shown before he was installed as a Knight of the Garter in 1703. The 3rd Duke of Schomberg's daughter, Lady Frederica, married Robert D'Arcy, 3rd Earl of Holdernesse, and her granddaughter married the 5th Duke of Leeds.
