Dorothy, Lady Temple

Inscriptionback to top

Signed CNetscher f/1671.<sup>1

1</sup> The initial of the monogram previously read as G; there is some ambiguity.

This portraitback to top

Marjorie Wieseman noted a generous proportion of studio assistance in NPG 3813, instancing the clumsy drapery folds, disproportionately small hands and slick execution.
Two different Netscher portraits have been identified as Dorothy Osborne in family inventories. A Netscher in the Northwick Park sale, Christie’s, 25 February 1965, lot 4, called Lady Temple, seems not the same person, [1] yet a copy of it, formerly at Broadlands, is inscribed, verso, ‘Copy from Netscher/by Mrs Weatherell 1784/Lady Temple wife of/Sir Wm Temple’; [2] it shows a three-quarter-length seated figure with a book in her lap, as befits Dorothy Osborne’s character, and the head resembles that in the Lely portrait.

Footnotesback to top

1) Signed and dated 1671; probably Jane Yarner (M. E. Wieseman, Caspar Netscher, 2002, no.110). Paired with another Netscher called Sir William Temple, also lot 4, and also signed and dated 1671, now identified as probably Sir John Temple, Sir William’s younger brother (M. E. Wieseman, Caspar Netscher, 2002, no.109), who married Jane Yarner.
2) Examined in 1907/08 in the NPG (MS Descriptions of Portraits, IX, no.9; Prince Frederick Duleep Singh, Portraits in Norfolk Houses, II, p 318, no.61); Spixworth Park sale, 19 March 1912, lot 195, bought Cubitt of Norwich. Letter from Mrs Georgina Blois, 7 October 1957 (NPG archive) recorded it at Classiebawn (the Irish home of the Mountbattens) in 1957.

Referenceback to top

Piper 1963
D. Piper, Catalogue of the Seventeenth Century Portraits in the National Portrait Gallery 1625-1714, 1963, p 339.

Wieseman 2002
M. E. Wieseman, Caspar Netscher, 2002, B16.

Provenanceback to top

Temple collection, Moor Park; sale, Christie’s, 30 March 1824, lot 66, bought Seguier for the 2nd Viscount Palmerston at Broadlands; by descent to the Countess Mountbatten, from whom purchased 1951.

Exhibitionsback to top

British Institution 1844, no.74 lent Palmerston.


This extended catalogue entry is from the National Portrait Gallery collection catalogue: John Ingamells, National Portrait Gallery: Later Stuart Portraits 1685–1714, National Portrait Gallery, 2009, and is as published then. For the most up-to-date details on individual Collection works, we recommend reading the information provided in the Search the Collection results on this website in parallel with this text.

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