Lady Mary Dudley, Lady Sidney (oil on panel)

Lady Mary Dudley (c.1530-86) mother of the renowned Elizabethan poet Sir Philip Sidney; sister-in-law of Lady Jane Grey (1537-54); Lady Mary Dudley was the elder daughter of John Dudley, Earl of Warwick and Duke of Northumberland (1502?–1553), and sister of Elizabeth I’s favourite, Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester (1532?–1588). She was the mother of Sir Philip Sidney and of Robert Sidney, 1st Earl of Leicester of the fourth creation. The painting was probably acquired from Penshurst Place in the eighteenth century. Eworth was a Flemish painter who emigrated to London in 1544. The care with which the jewellery and book-binding are depicted is typical of him. However, he rarely painted whole-lengths, and the loose curtain background is not characteristic of his work.