Portrait of a lady, a member of the Norton family, three-quarter-length, in a floral dress

Born in France, Henri Gascars departed his homeland for England in 1674, probably at the behest of Louise de Keroualle, Duchess of Portsmouth, Charles II’s favourite French mistress. His close links with the French Court and Louis XIV have given rise to the suggestion that Gascar was a French agent working in England. Gascars proceeded to paint a series of portraits of the ladies of Charles II’s court; these were fashioned in a flamboyant style with vivid colouring and a focus on decorative details such as the embroidery on his subject's dresses. His most astonishing work in England is the full-length portrait of James II, then Duke of York, as Lord High Admiral (National Maritime Museum, London). Gascars painted several portraits of female sitters in an almost identical pose to the present work, such as his portrait of the Duchess of Portsmouth (National Trust, Hartwell House) and his double portrait of Anne Barrington and Mary St John.

A NOTE ON THE PROVENANCE:

Sir Roy Strong, C.H., F.R.S.L. (b. 1935) is an English art historian, former museum curator, writer, broadcaster, and garden designer. He was made Director of the National Portrait Gallery aged 32, and at 38 Director of the Victoria & Albert Museum, where he stayed until 1987. Sir Roy has published extensively, and is particularly renowned for his knowledge of Elizabethan portraiture, and gardens. In 1971 he married the theatre-designer Julia Trevelyan Oman (1930-2003), and together they created the celebrated gardens at The Laskett, Much Birch, Herefordshire, which Sir Roy has recently gifted to Perennial, the Gardeners' Royal Benevolent Society.