1 OF 2 
Eleanor James
1 of 2 portraits of Eleanor James
- Overview
- Extended catalogue entry
Later Stuart Portraits Catalogue
Eleanor James
by Unknown artist
circa 1690
49 7/8 in. x 40 3/4 in. (1268 mm x 1035 mm)
NPG 5592
Inscriptionback to top
The standing book inscribed: VINDICATION/of the/CHurch of England/by misr james/in an/ANSWER/to a pamphliet/INTITULED/A New Test/of the/church oF England/LOYALTY; an added inscription, upper right: Eleonora Conjux/Thomae James.1
1 Added in 1777 when the College Governors ordered that inscriptions be painted on their portraits (note by C. K. Adams in Notes on Collections: Sion College, NPG archive).
This portraitback to top
Elinor James’s Vindication of the Church of England was published in 1687 and drew many incensed replies.
In 1802 Malcolm described NPG 5592 as ‘a very good picture, whose features and eyes have a disordered and singular expression’. It remains her only known portrait, showing her in the height of fashion with a fontange headdress and one of her better-known provocative pamphlets prominently displayed beside her.
Referenceback to top
Malcolm 1802
J. P. Malcolm, Londinium Redivivum, I, 1802, p 35.
Simon & Saywell (eds.) 2004
Complete Illustrated Catalogue, NPG, ed. J. Simon & D. Saywell, 2004, p 333.
Provenanceback to top
Presented by the sitter to Sion House 1713;1 bought in Tunbridge Wells c.1970 by Mrs Thompson;2 Sotheby’s, 20 July 1983, lot 18, bought Leggatt for the NPG.
1 With portraits of her husband and his grandfather, Charles I and Charles II (a whole-length, described by Malcolm in 1802 as a wretched performance, inscribed The gift of Mrs Elinor James to this hall, God bless her Majesty! A.D. 1713), and her husband’s library.
2 It hung in Puttenden Manor and later at Cloghan Castle, Co. Offaly.
Exhibitionsback to top
Gawthorpe 1998–.
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.