Inscribed at lower left in yellow: "Earl of Southampton"
Versions: Roy Strong feels the original portrait "is probably the head and shoulders (on panel) in the collection of Earl Spencer, Althorp, which is signed by Mytens and dated 1618 (?)." Altogether, five head-and-shoulders versions are known; and half-length versions can be found in the National Portrait Gallery, London; in the Wingfield Digby Collection, Sherbourne Castle; and a small copy at Hodnet Hall, Shropshire. Three-quarter-length versions, like the Folger painting, are at Hardwick Hall; Gorhambury (Earl of Verulam); Master's Lodge, St. John's College, Cambridge; and Alex Wengraf Limited, London, this last work formerly in the collection of Earl Howe
Also available as a digital reproduction
First loaned to FSL by Paul Mellon in January 1960 and given on 22 May 1980
Provenance: The pair purchased in September 1950, by John F. Fleming, an associate of the Rosenbach Company, from a Mrs. Henry Mostyn, then living in Riverdale, Md., who was thought to be a direct descendant of the countess of Southampton; collection of Mr. and Mrs. Paul Mellon
Title from Pressly
Exhibited
Exhibited: Detroit Institute of Arts and Richmond, Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, "The World of Shakespeare, 1564-1616," 1964, nos. 13 and 14, as "attributed to Jan Antoniz Ravesteyn"
Washington, D.C., Folger Shakespeare Library, 2005. Consuming Splendor
Also known as
Extended title: Henry Wriothesley, Third Earl of Southampton after Daniel Mytens
artist: Mytens, Daniel, 1590-1648
subject: Southampton, Henry Wriothesley, Earl of, 1573-1624
former owner: Fleming, John F.
former owner: Mostyn, Henry, Mrs.
former owner: Mellon, Paul
former owner: Mellon, Paul, Mrs.
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