William Larkin | Good Gentlewoman

You know how it is – you flip through the family photograph album and suddenly you come across that old snap, a woman standing in the back garden. She’s definitely a relative – she’s got grandma’s nose and cousin Edith’s smile, but who is she? Well the St John’s have just such a portrait.

The manor of Purley Magna came into the St John family as the result of a 16th century marriage between Jane Iwardeby and John St John. When Jane died in 1553 her grandson Nicholas inherited the estate which came to him by right of settlement on his wife, the former Elizabeth Blount from neighbouring Mapledurham House.

The medieval Mapledurham manor house near Reading was partially demolished in the 17th century as successive members of the Blount family renovated and rebuilt the property but for more than 200 years a full length portrait of Lady St John of Bletso hung in the dining room. Attributed to William Larkin, dubbed the ‘Curtain Master,’ for placing his sitters framed by shiny drapes and a carpet boarder, this Lady somewhat unusually stands against a woodland backdrop.

The Lady St John portrait arrived at Mapledurham in 1755 as part of the inheritance of Mary Agnes Blount from her father Sir Henry Joseph Tichbourne who died in 1743. A guide book available in the 1990s identified the sitter as ‘probably’ Catherine Dormer d.1615, the widow of John 2nd Baron St John of Bletso d. 1596, one of the peers who tried Mary, Queen of Scots.

In 1969/70 the portrait went on loan to the Tate Gallery for ‘The Elizabethan Image’ exhibition and in 1985 was part of the Treasure House of Britain exhibition at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, DC. In the catalogue that accompanied that exhibition art historian Sir Roy Strong questioned the identity of the lady in black and suggested she might be Anne Leighton, first wife of Sir John St John, 1st Baronet.

Sir Roy compares the Mapledurham portrait with the representation of Anne on the St John polyptych, also thought to have been painted by William Larkin.

Unfortunately the polyptych has been subject to 400 years of fiddling and fussing and considerable overpainting with copious amounts of varnish applied to the portrait. Conservation work in the 1980s saw most of the damage reversed, but sadly the portrait of Anne had suffered the most. She appears with a ghostly white face on the arm of her husband , but a comparison of the fashion bears up well to the Mapledurham matron.

What do you think? I think she has her mother’s eyes.

Today it seems incredible that the distinctive work of ‘Curtain Master’ William Larkin remained neglected and in question until 1952 when architectural historian James Lees-Milne rediscovered him. Larkin lived and worked in the City of London, his relatively short career spanned the years 1609 until his death ten years later.

Famed for his attention to jewellery, embroidery and lace details, Larkin’s signature curtain and carpets frame his full length portraits of early 17th century courtiers, their wives and children.

With her name painted above her head, this magnificent Larkin portrait is identifiable as that of Lady Dorothy Cary. Or is it?

Dorothy St John was the daughter of Oliver St John, 1st Earl Bolingbroke and his wife Elizabeth Paulet. The couple married in 1602 and had at least eight children. Dorothy was one of their elder daughters and although some records suggest she was born in 1612 her birth date was more likely 1605.

Dorothy St John married John Carey, Viscount Rochford and later 2nd Earl Dover on May 9, 1628. Like so many husbands of St John women John Carey came from an illustrious and possibly illegitimate line. John had wealth and status and a family tree that stretched back to Henry Carey, the son of that ‘Other Boleyn Girl’ Mary and it was suggested the offspring of Henry VIII.

Sadly Dorthy and John’s marriage was of a lamentably short duration. Dorothy died on June 28, just 50 days after her wedding, at the Carey family seat in Hunsdon, Hertfordshire; a palatial property rebuilt by Henry VIII in about 1525 and given to Henry Carey by Queen Elizabeth in 1559.

Richard Sackville Earl of Dorset

The portrait of Lady Dorothy Cary forms part of the Suffolk collection of 41 paintings given to the nation in 1974 according to the wishes of the 11th Countess of Suffolk and hangs in Kenwood House, Hampstead. Other portraits include those of Richard Sackville 3rd Earl of Dorset, Anne Cecil, Countess of Stamford and Diana Cecil, Countess of Oxford.

Anne Cecil, Countess of Stamford

Sir Roy Strong, who describes Larkin as a superb technician and a portrait painter of considerable power, writes about the Suffolk collection ‘only one of the sitters defies any kind of placing within a family context, that of Dorothy Cary,’ William Larkin: Icons of Splendour – which might be the first question mark over the identity of this particular lady.

The date of the portrait is estimated to be c1614-1618, some ten years before Dorothy and John’s marriage – but this does not present a problem. Dorothy’s married name could easily have been added to an earlier portrait following her death.

But it’s when an examination of these dates is made that some interesting questions arise. Let’s take 1612 – the latest proposed birthdate for Dorothy. This would mean she was 16 at the time of her marriage to John – perfectly plausible. But if the portrait was painted c1614-1618 she would have been just 2 – 6 years old! If we take the earlier birthdate of c1605 Dorothy’s age comes in at 9 – 13 years old. Is this the portrait of a 13 year old?