Mary of Modena

Inscriptionback to top

Signed on lip of plinth to left: W: Wissing. pinxt.

This portraitback to top

Woodin, a previous owner, said that the picture had been inscribed Sir Peter Lely over the Wissing signature. [1]
A much-repeated Wissing pattern showing Mary as Queen, of which three basic types may be distinguished (though there are also minor variations in the distant palace).
a) Similar to NPG 214, represented at Cairnbulg Castle; sold Christie’s, 26 November 1943, lot 20 from the collection of Lord Bruntisfield; Christie’s, 1 December 2000, lot 18, and Sotheby’s, Summers Place, 14-16 September 1999, lot 919 (from the Earls of Fife), inscribed 1685. A half-length version is in the Museum of London (60.17).
b) Showing a white cockatoo instead of the dog, represented at the Yale Center for British Art (B1986.10; from the Ditchley sale, Christie’s, 24 May 1933, lot 91), and the Scottish NPG (PG 976). [2]
c) Showing a hanging drape far right instead of the solomonic column, seen at Sotheby’s, 6 June 2007, lot 16 (from Cobham Hall and Parham Park), and at Christie’s, 17 November 1967, lot 107, and 19 July 1985, lot 73 (from Leslie House).

Footnotesback to top

1) Letter on file of 26 December 1867.
2) Illus. Dynasty, The Royal House of Stewart, Scottish NPG, 1990 p 85.

Referenceback to top

Piper 1963
D. Piper, Catalogue of the Seventeenth Century Portraits in the National Portrait Gallery 1625-1714, 1963, p 223.

Provenanceback to top

Purchased from ‘a London lawyer’ by A. A. Woodin; Henry Farrer of Bond Street, from whom purchased 1866.

View all known portraits for Mary of Modena