Studio of Sir Peter Lely (Soest 1618-1680 London)


A double portrait of Arthur Capel, 1st Earl of Essex and Elizabeth, Countess of Essex, seated before a landscapeoil on canvas102.7 x 127.9cm (40 7/16 x 50 3/8in).
|ProvenanceIn the collection of the present owner's family since the late 1960sThe primary version of the present portrait is in the National Portrait Gallery, London (inv. no. NPG 5461).The sitters, Arthur (1631-1683), the son of Arthur Capel, 1st Baron Capel of Hadham and Elizabeth Morrison, the sole heir of Cassiobury House, Watford, and Lady Elizabeth Percy, daughter of Algernon Percy, 10th Earl of Northumberland and Lady Anne Cecil, married at Petworth in 1653. Under Charles II Arthur conducted a prominent career as a statesman; he was made 1st Earl of Essex in 1661, served as Lord Lieutenant of Ireland 1672-77 and First Lord of the Treasury in 1679. Around 1680, his political attitude changed dramatically, most likely caused by the prospect of a Catholic monarch, and he became implicated in the Rye House Plot in 1683 against the King and his brother, James Duke of York. Subsequently he was imprisoned in the Tower of London and while awaiting execution was discovered there with his throat cut. Although inconclusive the evidence suggests suicide as most likely.