Lady Hester Bowyer (née Aucher)
© National Portrait Gallery, London
Lady Hester Bowyer (née Aucher)
after George Perfect Harding, after Cornelius Johnson (Cornelius Janssen van Ceulen)
stipple engraving, early 19th century (1630-1640)
14 7/8 in. x 11 in. (378 mm x 278 mm) paper size
Purchased with help from the Whitin Fund, 1954
Reference Collection
NPG D32027
Sitterback to top
- Lady Hester Bowyer (née Aucher) (died 1665), 'The Star in the East'; wife of Sir Edmund Bowyer. Sitter in 1 portrait.
Artistsback to top
- George Perfect Harding (1779 or 1780-1853), Portrait painter, copyist and antiquary. Artist or producer associated with 173 portraits, Sitter in 1 portrait.
- Cornelius Johnson (Cornelius Janssen van Ceulen) (1593-1661), Portrait painter. Artist or producer associated with 148 portraits, Sitter associated with 3 portraits.
Events of 1800back to top
Current affairs
Widespread food riots after poor harvests of 1798-9. Theorist, Thomas Malthus, controversially argues that poverty and food shortages are an inevitable consequence of population growth, challenging assumptions that populousness was a sign of national prosperity and power. His thesis contributed forcefully to the debate over the existing Poor Law.Art and science
William Wordsworth publishes his Preface to the Lyrical Ballads; a retrospective explanation of his experimental poems written with Samuel Taylor Coleridge. It becomes one of the best-known manifestos of Romantic literature.International
Lord Castlereagh, Chief Secretary for Ireland, is the main architect of the Act of Union under which Ireland is merged with Great Britain and the Irish parliament is abolished.British troops support successful uprising by Maltese against the French.
Napoleon is victorious against Austrians at Marengo and reconquers Italy.
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Ken Reedie
27 July 2015, 14:20
Lady Aucher, not Archer
Tony Ross
05 August 2015, 21:44
Lady Bowyer, daughter of Sir Anthony Aucher Of Bourne Place whose exquisite beauty obtained for her, not the poetical but the usual name of the " Star in the East. Inscription on her monument - IN HOPES OF A GLORIOUS RESURRECTION TO ETERNAL LIFE,
BY THE MERITS OF JESUS CHRIST, HERE LYES BURIED Ye BODY
OF DAME HESTER BOWYER, LATE WIFE OF EDMUND BOWYER,
OF THIS PARISH, KNT., AND DAUGHTER OF SIR ANTHONY
AUCHER, KNIGHT.
THERE WAS A HAPPY SYMPATHY BETWIXT Ye VIRTUES OF Ye
SOULE AND Ye BEAUTY OF Ye BODY OF THIS EXCELLENT
DECEASED PERSON. SHE LIVED A HOLY LIFE, AND DIED THE
DEATH OF THE RIGHTEOUS, DECEMBER Y e 10, 1665.
A GOOD LYFE HATH BUT A FEW DAYS
BUT A GOOD NAME ENDURETH FOR EVER.
SIR EDMUND ALSO (AS HE DESIRED) LYES HERE BY HIS LOVING
AND BELOVED WIFE. LIKENESS BEGAT LOVE, AND LOVE HAPPINESS
See 'Censuria Litereraria by Brydges'
For image see:
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Lady_Bowyer,_by_Cornelis_Jonson_van_Ceulen.jpg