CORNELIUS JOHNSON | PORTRAIT OF LADY ELIZABETH CRAVEN (NÉE FAIRFAX), WIFE OF SIR WILLIAM CRAVEN OF LENCHWICK (1610-1655), HALF LENGTH

Earls of Craven, Combe Abbey, since the early 17th century (inv. no. 132, according to plate on frame);

Thence by descent;

With Lane Fine Art, London;

From whom acquired 1 November 1985.

Catalogue of the pictures at Combe Abbey, Warwickshire: The Seat of William Earl of Craven, 1866, p. 11, cat. no. 132.

The sitter in this portrait is Elizabeth Fairfax (b. 1613/4), daughter of Ferdinando Fairfax, 2nd Lord Fairfax of Cameron and Mary Sheffield. She married Sir William Craven of Lenchwick in 1646.

We are grateful to Professor Karen Hearn for suggesting the attribution to Cornelius Johnson on the basis of photographs and a likely date of execution of 1637 based on the fashion the sitter wears. The hairstyle, low square-neck bodice, and deep laced cuffs that are cut before the sitter's hands are details repeated in Johnson's signed and dated Portrait of Margaret Campion last known in Danny House, West Sussex ^[1].

^1. See A. J. Finberg, "A Chronological List of Portraits by Cornelius Johnson, or Jonson", in The Walpole Society, vol. X, Oxford 1922, fig. LVIII.