Richard Gibson

(1615-1690) Portrait miniature of Barbara Villiers

Watercolour on vellum

Oval, 3 1/8 in ( 79 mm) high

Provenance

Reputedly Robert Spencer, 2nd Earl of Sunderland (1641-1702), thence by descent, until sold; Christie’s, London, ‘The Spencer House Sale’, 8 July 2010, lot 1060; Private collection, UK

Literature

Albert Edward John, 7th Earl Spencer (1892-1975), Miniatures at Althorp, 1937, no.68, as ‘Peg Hughes the actress (d: 1719)./ Probably a Sunderland Miniature./ No. 12 in 1914 list./ X. 450 in Inventory’, and later annotated in pen, ‘Now said to represent Barbara Villiers, Duchess of Cleveland’. C. MacLeod and J.M. Alexander Painted Ladies: Women at the Court of Charles II, (London and New Haven, 2001), p.128, no.40

Exhibitions

London, Burlington Fine Arts Club, Exhibition of Portrait Miniatures, 1889, Case XXXII, no.79, as ‘Portrait of a Lady, in brown gown’ (lent by Earl Spencer); London, Royal Academy, The Age of Charles II, 1960-61, no.668 (lent by The Earl Spencer); London, National Portrait Gallery. Samuel Cooper and his Contemporaries, 1974m no.184 (lent by The Earl Spencer)