Attributed to Susannah-Penelope Rosse, Portrait of a Woman, Possibly Nell Gwyn, ca. 1675

Chicago:

Aimee Marcereau DeGalan, “Attributed to Susannah-Penelope Rosse, Portrait of a Woman, Possibly Nell Gwyn, ca. 1675,” catalogue entry in Aimee Marcereau DeGalan, Blythe Sobol, and Maggie Keenan, The Starr Collection of Portrait Miniatures, 1500–1850: The Collections of the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, vol. 2, ed. Aimee Marcereau DeGalan (Kansas City, MO: Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, 2024), https://doi.org/10.37764/8322.5.1234.

MLA:

Marcereau DeGalan, Aimee. “Attributed to Susannah-Penelope Rosse, Portrait of a Woman, Possibly Nell Gwyn, ca. 1675,” catalogue entry. Aimee Marcereau DeGalan, Blythe Sobol, and Maggie Keenan. The Starr Collection of Portrait Miniatures, 1500–1850: The Collections of the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, edited by Aimee Marcereau DeGalan, vol. 2, Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, 2024. doi: 10.37764/8322.5.1234.

See the artist’s biography in volume 4.

This captivating portrait attributed to Susannah-Penelope Rosse offers a fascinating glimpse into the vibrant culture of King Charles II’s restored and pleasure-loving court in post-1660 England. This period saw the emergence of a distinct form of portraiture celebrating the beauty and sensuality prevalent in Charles II’s court, which was also home to Queen Catherine of Braganza, who had limited influence due to her inability to bear children. She coexisted with Charles’s many mistresses, setting the stage for complex power dynamics that were often waged through portraiture.

Traditionally, the sitter in this miniature has been identified, like so many other portraits of comely women of the seventeenth century who appear in a state of undress, as the actress Eleanor (“Nell”) Gwyn (1651?–1687). Born into humble beginnings, she transitioned from selling oranges outside of London’s Drury Lane Theatre as a child to performing on its stage at fifteen. Renowned for her looks and her comedic talent, she captured the attention of diarist Samuel Pepys, who affectionately called her “pretty, witty Nell.”¹ Her romantic involvements included Charles Hart, a fellow actor; Charles Sackville, Earl of Dorset; and, most notably, King Charles II, with whom she had two sons; Charles Beauclerk, later Duke of St. Albans, around 1670, the approximate date of this portrait, and James Beauclerk, a year later. Although she did not have a noble title herself, the king intended to make her Countess of Greenwich before his death in 1685.² Their relationship lasted seventeen years, until his death, with Gwyn herself passing away two years later in her mid-thirties.

Initially, Gwyn faced little competition among Charles’s other mistresses; Barbara Villiers, 1st Duchess of Cleveland’s favor was waning, while Mary “Moll” Davis was not much in the public eye, which may have been partially orchestrated by Gwyn herself.³ However, when Louise de Kéroualle (later the duchess of Portsmouth)—a proud woman of noble birth whom this portrait sitter also resembles—arrived in England in 1670, she quickly became one of the King’s intimates.⁴ Numerous likenesses of these women exist in court paintings and engravings, with Gwyn being the most frequently identified, and misidentified, among them.⁵ Between the high number of likenesses and the similarity of features among the mistresses and other women at court, as depicted—their heavy-lidded, almond-shaped eyes, gently arched eyebrows, straight noses, and fleshy lips and bosoms, markers that epitomize ideals of beauty in the late 1600s—it is difficult to pin down the identity of any one individual in these portraits.⁶

Gwyn’s representation in some engravings where she is named, however, show her with an exposed nipple.⁷ Similarly, in this miniature, the strategic folds of the sitter’s rose-colored satin Van Dyck-style mantle worn over a white cotton chemise exposes her right breast. A pearl-encrusted ornament appears below her bust, which may have acted to secure the other side of the dress, but it has come undone. Such portraits featuring an exposed nipple or bare breasts were often associated with mistresses, indicating their perceived romantic availability.⁸ This attribute is also associated with Venus, goddess of love, whose symbols, among others, include the bare breast—thus, the allusion is apt.⁹ This connection between the level of exposure in Stuart-era portraits and romantic involvement depended on various factors, including social class and physical attractiveness.¹⁰

During Charles’s era, formal attire was required in the presence of superiors, while those in higher positions could assert their authority by appearing informally or partially unclothed.¹¹ The sitter’s deliberately loosened robes serve as a dual assertion of power—both sexually provocative and politically assertive, engaging the viewer’s gaze while humbling them. It aimed to show that these women, not to mention the king, felt no need to be fully covered. In this case, the portrait underscores the sitter’s close relationship with the monarch. The placement of the nipple in the present portrait, however, is anatomically off and may in fact be a later addition to align the miniature with Gwyn, thus adding an element of uncertainty about the identity of the sitter.¹²

Similarly, the attribution of this miniature remains speculative. Although Richard Gibson has traditionally been assigned as the artist since the 1950s, another, more viable candidate is Gibson’s daughter, portrait miniaturist Susannah-Penelope Rosse (ca. 1655–1700). Notably, neither Gibson nor Rosse were strangers to producing likenesses of the king’s mistresses.¹³ The miniature bears some hallmark features of Gibson’s hand, including a build-up of rich impasto across the face and other portions of the composition and a brushy application of pigment.¹⁴ However, much of the modeling of the face, neck, and chest also appears to be created in a colored stipple, which has more in common with some of the smaller, earlier works by Gibson’s daughter, Rosse.¹⁵ The stylized treatment of the sitter’s curls, accentuated by delicate highlights, along with the undulating lines of her white chemise, further reflect Rosse’s artistic style. Rosse initially studied with her father and mimicked his style, causing some of the confusion over attribution with some of her early works and his. Contributing to the challenge of definitively attributing this artwork, the lower half of the composition exhibits a notably rougher quality, suggestive of being either unfinished, completed by a different artist, or potentially affected by condition issues such as color fading due to light exposure, resulting in a loss of modeling.¹⁶ Additionally, discernible overpaint is evident, particularly in the reinforcement of the lock of hair resting on the sitter’s left shoulder.¹⁷

Notwithstanding these uncertainties, this miniature presents a court beauty, realized during an era when stories of intrigue, sensuality, and visual exercises of power converged through calculated representations of one’s likeness.

Notes

1. Entry for April 3, 1665, in Samuel Pepys, The Diary of Samuel Pepys, ed. Robert Latham and William Matthews (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1975), 6:73.

2. While Nell Gwyn did not receive a court title, she did receive a house in Pall Mall from the king, who gave her a pension of four thousand pounds per year from rents in Ireland and later another five thousand pounds per year out of the Secret Service Fund. See S. M. Wynne, “Gwyn, Eleanor (1651?–1687),” Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, last modified September 1, 2017, https://doi.org/10.1093/ref:odnb/11816; and Philip H. Highfill Jr., Kalman A. Burnim, and Edward A. Langham, A Biographical Dictionary of Actors, Actresses, Musicians . . . in London, 1600–1800 (Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Press, 1978), 6:455–72.

3. In an apocryphal story, Nell Gwyn reportedly gave Moll Davis an overdose of laxatives shortly before she was planning to visit the King’s bedchamber. The results were explosive. See Charles Beauclerk, Nell Gwyn: Mistress to a King (New York: Atlantic Monthly Press, 2005), 126–27.

4. The present sitter also resembles Louise de Kéroualle; however, according to Catharine MacLeod, her hair does not seem to be as dark as Louise’s. Correspondence between Catharine MacLeod, senior curator, Seventeenth-Century Collections, National Portrait Gallery, London, and Aimee Marcereau DeGalan, November 13, 2023, notes in NAMA curatorial files.

5. See Richard Gibson, Barbara Villiers, Duchess of Cleveland (1640–1709), watercolor on vellum, 3 1/8 in. (7.9 cm) high, sold at The Spencer House Sale, Christie’s, London, July 8, 2010, lot 1060, https://www.christies.com/en/lot/lot-5335266; Richard Tompson (English, 1618–1680), after Sir Peter Lely (Dutch, active England, 1618–1680), Mary Davis, ca. 1678–79, mezzotint, 13 3/4 x 10 1/8 in. (35 x 25.7 cm), Royal Collection Trust, RCIN 653410, https://www.rct.uk/collection/653410/mary-davis; Gerard Valck (English 1651/1652–1726), after Sir Peter Lely (Dutch, active England, 1618–1680), Louise de Kéroualle, 1678, mezzotint, 1678, 9 1/2 x 7 1/2 in. (24 x 19 cm), National Portrait Gallery, London, NPG D3937, https://www.npg.org.uk/collections/search/portrait/mw38191/Louise-de-Kroualle-Duchess-of-Portsmouth. Catharine MacLeod makes this point about the prevalence of portraits of Nell Gwyn, whether incorrectly attributed or not, in “Women at Court, The Later Years,” in Catharine MacLeod and Julia Marciari Alexander, Painted Ladies: Women at the Court of Charles II (London: National Portrait Gallery and Yale Center for British Art, 2001), 166–68.

6. The sitter also bears a resemblance to a portrait of Mary of Modena, Duchess of York, from around 1675 to 1678. Not only does the sitter wear a rose-colored gown; Gibson’s daughter, Susannah-Penelope Rosse, created a miniature after the portrait. See Simon Petersz. Verelse, Mary of Modena, Duchess of York, ca. 1675–78, oil on canvas, 49 1/2 x 40 1/2 in. (125.7 x 102.9 cm), Yale Center for British Art, New Haven, CT, B1979.19, https://collections.britishart.yale.edu/catalog/tms:498. See also Susannah-Penelope Rosse, Mary of Modena, ca. 1685, watercolor on vellum laid on card, 1 x 7/8 in. (2.5 x 2.2 cm), Royal Collection Trust, RCIN 420093, https://www.rct.uk/collection/search#/11/collection/420093/mary-of-modena-1658-1718.

7. See Gerard Valck, after Sir Peter Lely, Nell Gwyn, ca. 1673, line engraving, 13 3/4 x 10 in. (34.9 x 25.4 cm), National Portrait Gallery, London, NPG D10959, https://www.npg.org.uk/collections/search/portrait/mw19914/Nell-Gwyn; Richard Tompson, after Sir Peter Lely, James Beauclerk; Charles Beauclerk, 1st Duke of St. Albans; Nell Gwyn, before 1693, mezzotint, National Portrait Gallery, London, NPG D35093, https://www.npg.org.uk/collections/search/portrait/mw191940.

8. In Painted Ladies, Catharine MacLeod observes that portraits painted by Lely featuring bare breasts predominantly appear to represent mistresses. While this analysis is not determinative, it does suggest a connection. See MacLeod and Alexander, Painted Ladies, no. 67, 167–68. See also n. 9 below.

9. As cited in Julia Marciari Alexander’s catalogue entry for Diana Kirke, later Countess of Oxford, in MacLeod and Alexander, Painted Ladies, no. 21, 100. Several of Charles’s mistresses, including Nell, were depicted as Venus, sometimes including one of their sons with the king dressed as Venus’s child, Cupid. For example, After Peter Cross, Nell Gwyn as Venus, ca. 1678–79, mezzotint, 8 1/16 x 5 13/16 in. (20.6 x 14.8 cm), Royal Collection, United Kingdom, https://www.rct.uk/collection/655579/nell-gwyn-as-venus; Sir Peter Lely, Portrait of a Young Woman and Child, as Venus and Cupid…, oil on canvas, 48 3/4 x 61 3/4 in. (123.8 x 156.8 cm), sold at Christie’s, London, July 5, 2007, lot 57, https://www.christies.com/en/lot/lot-4942789.

10. Clare Bucknell makes this observation in “Mischief-Making Mistresses at the Court of Charles II,” Apollo Magazine, April 4, 2020, https://www.apollo-magazine.com/mischief-making-mistresses-court-of-charles-ii.

11. Bucknell, “Mischief-Making Mistresses.”

12. Correspondence between MacLeod and Marcereau DeGalan, November 13, 2023, NAMA curatorial files.

13. See Richard Gibson, Portrait of Barbara Villiers, Duchess of Cleveland, ca. 1673, cited in n. 5 above; Susannah-Penelope Rosse, Nell Gwyn, ca. 1675?, watercolor on vellum, 1 3/8 x 1 5/16 in. (4.1 x 3.3 cm), Cincinnati Art Museum, 1990.1790, https://www.cincinnatiartmuseum.org/art/explore-the-collection?id=24634493.

14. In a visit to the collection in October 2023, Stephen Lloyd did not question the attribution to Richard Gibson. However, he did acknowledge condition issues in the lower half of the miniature. See notes in NAMA curatorial files.

15. Correspondence between MacLeod and Marcereau DeGalan, December 14, 2023, NAMA curatorial files.

16. This opinion is shared by Lloyd and MacLeod. See notes in NAMA curatorial files and correspondence between MacLeod and Marcereau DeGalan, November 13, 2023, NAMA curatorial files. The red, now rose-colored drapery appears as though it may have faded through exposure to light and therefore lost some of its modeling.

17. In addition to the nipple, the brown ringlet of hair falling over the sitter’s shoulder may also have been altered through later additions, especially at the bottom and left. Lloyd noted these during his visit to the Nelson-Atkins in October 2023, and these comments were corroborated by MacLeod; see correspondence between MacLeod and Marcereau DeGalan, November 13, 2023, NAMA curatorial files.

Mr. John W. (1905–2000) and Mrs. Martha Jane (1906–2011) Starr, Kansas City, MO, by 1958;

Their gift to The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, MO, 1958.

The Starr Foundation Collection of Miniatures, The Royal Ontario Museum, Toronto, December 8, 1972–January 14, 1973, no cat., no. 15, as Unknown Lady.

Ross E. Taggart, The Starr Collection of Miniatures in the William Rockhill Nelson Gallery (Kansas City, MO: Nelson Gallery-Atkins Museum, 1971), no. 15, p. 12, (repro.), as Unknown Lady.