Lady Lucy Percy, Countess of Carlisle (1599 - 1660)

after Sir Anthony Van Dyck (Antwerp 1599 - London 1641). Oil painting on canvas, Lady Lucy Percy, Countess of Carlisle (1599 - 1660) after Sir Anthony Van Dyck (Antwerp 1599 - London 1641), circa 1635.45. A three-quarter-length portrait, turned to the left, gazing at the spectator, standing beside a fountain on the left, formed of a gaping mouth of a fish which is being ridden by a cupid, the water falls into a large stone basin, the fingers of her right hand are touching the water in the basin. She has tightly curled brown hair dressed with a crown of flowers and wears a single-strand pearl necklet. She is wearing a gold off the shoulder dress over a white chemise with a fur scarf over her left shoulder fastened at the waist with a belt of jewels. Trees behind the fountain on the left and a distant horizon with cloudy sky on the right. Lady Lucy Percy, Countess of Carlisle (1599-1660). Daughter of Henry Percy, 9th Earl of Northumberland (1564-1632). Married the 1st Earl of Carlisle in 1617 (he died in 1636). She was a close friend of Henrietta Maria and was deeply admired by Thomas Wentworth, 1st Earl of Strafford (1593-1641) whose friendship for her gave rise to scandal. An intelligent, politically minded but dangerous lady; 'active and tempestuous' and 'a very pernicious instrument'. During the Commonwealth she was a neighbour of Lady Dysart at Petersham, where, according to a contemporary 'she enjoyed herself more in this Retiredness than in all her former Vanaties' Ham House, Surrey (Accredited Museum)