Summary
This painting came from the same family collection at Wroxton Abbey, Oxfordshire, as the portrait of the sitter's unmarried sister-in-law Anne Pope, dated 1615 (Tate T00068). This collection was dispersed in 1933. Both works are by the same hand, which has been identified as that of Robert Peake, by comparison with such documented works as the 1613 full-length image of the future Charles I as Duke of York (University of Cambridge, Old Schools).
Elizabeth Watson, an heiress, married Sir William Pope of Wroxton (1596-1624) on 13 December 1615, and it is thought that her portrait may have been painted in connection with this event. She is depicted beneath a laurel tree, with a landscape beyond, and wears a classical mantle of black fabric embroidered with pearls in an ostrich-feather pattern; this pattern is repeated on her hat, which is trimmed with a real purple feather. She has a pearl choker, strings of pearls round her right wrist and a coral bangle round her left. Her chest is bared, with a heavy diamond necklace laid across it, and her left breast is almost exposed… (read more)
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