Lady Dorothy Percy, subsequently Countess of Leicester thumbnail 1
Image of Gallery in South Kensington
Request to view at the Prints & Drawings Study Room, level F , Case RMC, Shelf 10, Box Deep drawer

Lady Dorothy Percy, subsequently Countess of Leicester

Miniature
ca.1638 (painted)
Artist/Maker
Place of origin

Portrait, head and shoulders, turned a little to left and looking to front; the sitter is wearing a necklace of pearls and a low-cut dress. Features delicately stippled and hatched in brown and sanguine with some blue and grey and some white heightening (but see Condition), on a pale carnation ground; hair in a very transparent pale brown wash, hatched over with darker colour and touches of blue-grey; dress in black wash, the lights in pale grey; the jewel picked out in brown and grey with highlights in gold; the pearl in brown wash with a grey and white highlight; background in a solid blue wash, shaded darker to the left and low down; traces of a gold marginal strip; on vellum put down on a leaf from a table-book.

Frame: The miniature is fitted as the centrepiece of the first of two vitrines containing the so-called Leicester House miniatures. The vitrines appear to be constructed in two parts, of possibly different dates. The inner and apparently earlier is a short plank of fruitwood, ebonised on the front, into which oval and circular complex bolection mouldings, cut from a fine-grained ebonised fruitwood, are set, thus providing a rebate for the miniatures. The outer part is a deep picture frame of fruitwood stained dark brown, with a glazed rebate into which the inner part fits. Miniatures in both sets are labelled with apparently late eighteenth- or early nineteenth-century inscriptions on the inner part and carry number labels from South Kensington 1865.The backs of the outer part have been built out with hinged shutters and fitted with brass furniture of the late nineteenth or twentieth century. This work was probably ordered by Lewis, lst Viscount Harcourt (see below), who is recorded on two of the individual object labels (Due d'Alencon and Lord Burghley) as having added them to the set in 1907 and 1911 respectively. The vitrines, and miniatures from both sets, have been conserved; in some instances, such as the Mary Sidney, I they have been heavily restored. This may have been under the aegis of Joseph Duveen, from whom there was a note, which was still preserved in one of the vitrines when they were inspected by the present cataloguer in 1980. Lewis Harcourt's active curatorship of the sets would relate to the fact that he was a trustee of the British Museum, the NPG and the Wallace Collection and was a founder and trustee also of the Museum of London.


Object details

Categories
Object type
TitleLady Dorothy Percy, subsequently Countess of Leicester (generic title)
Materials and techniques
Watercolour on vellum, mounted on card
Brief description
Portrait miniature of Lady Dorothy Percy, subsequently Countess of Leicester, watercolour on vellum, painted by John Hoskins, ca. 1638.
Physical description
Portrait, head and shoulders, turned a little to left and looking to front; the sitter is wearing a necklace of pearls and a low-cut dress. Features delicately stippled and hatched in brown and sanguine with some blue and grey and some white heightening (but see Condition), on a pale carnation ground; hair in a very transparent pale brown wash, hatched over with darker colour and touches of blue-grey; dress in black wash, the lights in pale grey; the jewel picked out in brown and grey with highlights in gold; the pearl in brown wash with a grey and white highlight; background in a solid blue wash, shaded darker to the left and low down; traces of a gold marginal strip; on vellum put down on a leaf from a table-book.

Frame: The miniature is fitted as the centrepiece of the first of two vitrines containing the so-called Leicester House miniatures. The vitrines appear to be constructed in two parts, of possibly different dates. The inner and apparently earlier is a short plank of fruitwood, ebonised on the front, into which oval and circular complex bolection mouldings, cut from a fine-grained ebonised fruitwood, are set, thus providing a rebate for the miniatures. The outer part is a deep picture frame of fruitwood stained dark brown, with a glazed rebate into which the inner part fits. Miniatures in both sets are labelled with apparently late eighteenth- or early nineteenth-century inscriptions on the inner part and carry number labels from South Kensington 1865.The backs of the outer part have been built out with hinged shutters and fitted with brass furniture of the late nineteenth or twentieth century. This work was probably ordered by Lewis, lst Viscount Harcourt (see below), who is recorded on two of the individual object labels (Due d'Alencon and Lord Burghley) as having added them to the set in 1907 and 1911 respectively. The vitrines, and miniatures from both sets, have been conserved; in some instances, such as the Mary Sidney, I they have been heavily restored. This may have been under the aegis of Joseph Duveen, from whom there was a note, which was still preserved in one of the vitrines when they were inspected by the present cataloguer in 1980. Lewis Harcourt's active curatorship of the sets would relate to the fact that he was a trustee of the British Museum, the NPG and the Wallace Collection and was a founder and trustee also of the Museum of London.
Dimensions
  • Height: 56mm
  • Width: 44mm
Dimensions taken from John Murdoch Seventeenth-century English Miniatures in the collection of the Victoria and Albert Museum. London: The Stationery Office, 1997.
Styles
Marks and inscriptions
  • 'Dorothy /Percy. [underlined with a flourish ] /now/ Countess of Leycest[ er]' (Inscribed on the back in a seventeenth-century hand in ink)
  • 'Lady' (Also inscribed in a later hand in ink above, also the number 3 in graphite, and in the lower part of the oval the number 1712)
  • 'Lady /Dorothy /Percy / Countess of Leicester.' (The inner part of the vitrine bears a label written in ink in an eighteenth- or early nineteenth-century hand)
Object history
This miniature is one of tem by various artists acquired as a group and displayed in two frames. Nine of these miniatures are in the V&A collection, E.1170-1178-1988. The tenth miniature by Nicholas Hilliard of the poet Mary Herbert, Countess of Pembroke is now held by the National Portrait Gallery, London.
Subjects depicted
Associated objects
Bibliographic references
  • Strong, Roy, "The Leicester House Miniatures: Robert Sidney, 1st Earl of Leicester and his circle", Burlington Magazine CXXVII, October 1988, p. 697.
  • Murdoch, John. Seventeenth-century English Miniatures in the collection of the Victoria and Albert Museum. London: The Stationery Office, 1997.
Collection
Accession number
E.1172-1988

About this object record

Explore the Collections contains over a million catalogue records, and over half a million images. It is a working database that includes information compiled over the life of the museum. Some of our records may contain offensive and discriminatory language, or reflect outdated ideas, practice and analysis. We are committed to addressing these issues, and to review and update our records accordingly.

You can write to us to suggest improvements to the record.

Suggest feedback

Record createdNovember 24, 2008
Record URL
Download as: JSONIIIF Manifest