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Lot Essay
In 1741 the sitter married Sir William Courtenay, 3rd Bt., later 1st Viscount Courtenay, de jure 7th Earl of Devon, of Powderham Castle, Devon.
Smart (op.cit.), who included the work as by Ramsay, suggested that the sitter's costume may have been executed by Joseph van Aken, and pointed to the formula of Rubens' Portrait of Helena Fourment (Gulbenkian Collection), then in the Walpole Collection at Haughton. Subsequent research, however, suggests that the drapery is probably by Alexander van Aken, Joseph's younger brother, a closely related drawing by whom is in the collection of the National Galleries of Scotland. It also seems more likely that this picture belongs to a key group of portraits commissioned from Hudson by the Aylesford and Courtenay families, the latter being perhaps the artist's most constant patrons over a period of thirty years. For a celebrated full-length of the sitter by Hudson, see E.G. Miles, catalogue of the exhibition, Thomas Hudson, Kenwood, 1979, fig.2 in the introduction.
Smart (op.cit.), who included the work as by Ramsay, suggested that the sitter's costume may have been executed by Joseph van Aken, and pointed to the formula of Rubens' Portrait of Helena Fourment (Gulbenkian Collection), then in the Walpole Collection at Haughton. Subsequent research, however, suggests that the drapery is probably by Alexander van Aken, Joseph's younger brother, a closely related drawing by whom is in the collection of the National Galleries of Scotland. It also seems more likely that this picture belongs to a key group of portraits commissioned from Hudson by the Aylesford and Courtenay families, the latter being perhaps the artist's most constant patrons over a period of thirty years. For a celebrated full-length of the sitter by Hudson, see E.G. Miles, catalogue of the exhibition, Thomas Hudson, Kenwood, 1979, fig.2 in the introduction.