Paul van Somer, ca. 1576–1621, Flemish, active in Britain (from 1616)formerly attributed to Paul van Somer, ca. 1576–1621, Flemish, active in Britain (from 1616)
Title:
Elizabeth Erskine, (née Pierrepont), Countess of Kellie
Date:
ca. 1619
Materials & Techniques:
Oil on canvas
Dimensions:
81 x 48 1/2 inches (205.7 x 123.2 cm)
Credit Line:
Yale Center for British Art, Paul Mellon Collection
Pearls to Pyramids: British Visual Culture and the Levant, 1600–1830 (Yale Center for British Art, 2008-02-07 - 2008-04-28)This Other Eden : British Paintings from the Paul Mellon Collection at Yale (Art Gallery of New South Wales, 1998-05-01 - 1998-07-05)This Other Eden : British Paintings from the Paul Mellon Collection at Yale (Queensland Art Gallery, 1998-07-15 - 1998-09-06)This Other Eden : British Paintings from the Paul Mellon Collection at Yale (Art Gallery of South Australia, 1998-09-16 - 1998-11-15)
Publications:
Malcolm Cormack, Concise Catalogue of Paintings in the Yale Center for British Art, Yale Center for British Art, New Haven, CT, 1985, pp. 210-211, N590.2 .A83 (YCBA)Martina Droth, Britain in the world : Highlights from the Yale Center for British Art in honor of Amy Meyers, Yale University Press, New Haven, London, 2019, pp. 25, 26 (detail), 27 (detail), figs. 8, 9, 10, N6761 .Y33 2019 (LC) (YCBA)Maria Hayward, Stuart style : monarchy, dress and the Scottish male elite, Yale University Press, New Haven, Connecticut, p. 198, fig. 7.12, GT1755.S3 H39 2020 (YCBA)Julia Marciari-Alexander, This other Eden : Paintings from the Yale Center for British Art, , Yale Center for British Art, New Haven, CT, 1998, p. 26, no. 2, ND1314.3 Y36 1998 (YCBA)Andrew Morall, English embroidery from the Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1580-1700, 'twixt art and nature , The Bard Graduate Center for Studies in the Decorative Arts, New York New York New Haven, 2008, p. 182, fig. 37a, NK9243 M58 2008 + (YCBA)Paul Mellon's Legacy : a passion for British art [large print labels], , Yale Center for British Art, New Haven, CT, 2007, v. 3, N5220 M552 P381 2007 OVERSIZE (YCBA)Pearls to pyramids : British visual culture and the Levant, 1600-1830 [wall labels], Yale Center for British Art, 2008, p. 1, V 2576 (YCBA)Pearls to pyramids : British visual culture and the Levant, 1600-1830, , Yale Center for British Art, New Haven, 2008, p. 14, V1880Diana Scarisbrick, Jewellery in Tudor and Jacobean Portraits at New Haven, Apollo, vol. 126,, November 1987, pp. 332-33, N1 A54 + (YCBA)Angus Trumble, The Finger : A Handbook, , Farrar, Straus and Giroux, New York, 2010, p. 122, GT498.F46 T78 2010 (YCBA)Richard Verdi, The parrot in art, from Dèurer to Elizabeth Butterworth , Scala Publishers, London, 2007, p. 25, fig. 10, N7665 V47 2007 (YCBA)
Gallery Label:
Elizabeth, Countess of Kellie (d. 1621), was one of the wealthiest women in Jacobean England. The daughter of Sir Henry Pierrepont of Holme Pierrepont in Nottingham, Elizabeth was widowed twice before her marriage to Thomas Erskine (1566–1639) in 1604. It is possible that this portrait was made to celebrate Erskine’s elevation as the Earl of Kellie in 1619, as well as the extraordinary wealth of the sitter. The countess’s necklace drips with rich pearls, and the parakeet that clings to her dress might have come from Africa or Asia. Commissioning a portrait from the prized Flemish painter Paul van Somer was itself a mark of status: he was a favorite of Queen Anne of Denmark and members of her circle and had only arrived in England in 1616. Gallery label for installation of YCBA collection, 2016