James Worsdale

Active in both Ireland and London, the English painter James Worsdale (c. 1692–1767) started his career as a pupil in Sir Godfrey Kneller’s studio, only to be fired after secretly marrying his niece and claiming to be Kneller’s illegitimate son.¹ Known as a rake, Worsdale had by 1735 relocated to Ireland where he helped establish (and paint) the Hellfire Club of Limerick.

Although something of a scoundrel, Worsdale’s literary and aristocratic connections (as well as his bravado) helped him to secure portrait commissions. The present work depicts Ladies Georgiana (1727–1807) and Henrietta Scott (b. 1728), the daughters of Major General Henry Scott, 1st Earl of Deloraine (1676–1730) by his second wife, Mary Howard.² This double portrait is closely based on Sir Anthony van Dyck’s 1635 painting, The three eldest Children of Charles I.³ Worsdale has replicated with fidelity Van Dyck’s right-hand figure of Mary, Princess Royal (here as Lady Georgiana), as well as the King Charles Spaniel and the interior setting. Lady Henrietta stands to the left, in place of the Prince of Wales.

The decision to model the Scott portrait on Van Dyck’s earlier picture would seem a most deliberate one. The girls’ father, the 1st Earl of Deloraine, was, as the second son of James Scott, 1st Duke of Monmouth, a grandson of Charles II, shown as the Prince of Wales in Van Dyck’s picture. Although not a pretender to the throne like his father, who was executed in 1685 after the Monmouth Rebellion was put down at the Battle of Sedgemoor, Deloraine’s royal lineage and progeny are announced by a depiction of his daughters that employs the same visual language as their Stuart forebears.

It was not uncommon for British painters of this period to emulate Van Dyck’s compositions, indeed artists such as Charles Jervas (1675–1739) built a successful career on it.⁴ It is, however, relatively unusual to see a picture by Worsdale – who was primarily known as an imitator of Kneller – so unambiguously modelled on a Van Dyck.

The present signed portrait likely dates to around 1733–34, when the girls were aged around seven and six respectively, and before Worsdale’s Irish sojourn.

¹ E. Waterhouse, The Dictionary of British 18^th Century Painters in oils and crayons, Woodbridge 1981, p. 424.

² G.E. Cockayne et al., Complete Peerage of England, Scotland, Ireland, Great Britain and The United Kingdom, Extant, Extinct, or Dormant, London 1890, III, p. 54, I1706.

³ S.J. Barnes, N. De Poorter, O. Millar and H. Vey, Van Dyck, A Complete Catalogue of the Paintings, New Haven and London 2004, p. 479, no. IV.61.

⁴ Waterhouse 1981, pp. 195–96.