Cornelis Ketel

Probably George Montagu (1874–1962), 9th Earl of Sandwich, Hinchingbrooke House, Huntington;

By whom sold (‘Property of the Rt. Hon. The Earl of Sandwich […] removed from Hinchingbrooke, Huntington’), London, Christie’s, 4 March 1927, lot 12 (as follower of Gheeraerts), for £31–10s to Huggins;

H.S. Mortimer;

Paul Mellon (1907–1999), Pittsburgh;

His sale, London, Sotheby’s, 18 November 1981, lot 27 (as English School, 16^th century);

Where acquired.

K. Hearn, in Dynasties. Painting in Tudor and Jacobean England 1530–1630, K. Hearn (ed.), exh. cat., London 1995, pp. 108–9, under no. 58.

Mary Davy, née Smythe, was the eldest child of Alice Smythe (1535–1593), née Judde, and Thomas 'Customer' Smythe (1522–1591), collector of customs duties in the Port of London and one of the wealthiest merchants and financiers of his day. This painting forms part of an important set of portraits by Cornelis Ketel of the Smythe family, each dated 1579 and inscribed with the sitter’s age. According to Karen Hearn (see Literature): ‘No comparable contemporary group of English paintings, of such extent and quality and by a securely identified artist has survived'.¹ Although neither portrait is signed, Ketel’s characteristic technique is evident, and his use of a very distinctive serpentine ‘A’, also features in his signed portrait of William Gresham (1522–1579), likewise dated 1579 in a private collection.²

The remainder of the portraits from the set, respectively depicting Mary’s mother Alice;³ three of her brothers, Thomas (1558–1625), Richard (1563–1628) and Robert (1567–before 1629);⁴ and four of her sisters, Ursula (1555–1621), Joan (1560–1622),⁵ Alice (1564–1615) and Elisabeth (c. 1572–c. 1631) descended in the sitter’s family and are now in the collection of The Skinners' Company, London. The portrait of Mary’s eldest brother John (1557–1608) is in the Yale Center for British Art, New Haven.⁶

Note on Provenance

This painting was once part of the renowned collection of Paul Mellon, one of the greatest collectors and philanthropists of the twentieth century. In 1966, he founded the Yale Center for British Art in New Haven, Connecticut, donating part of his collection and funding its establishment. Today, the Center holds the largest and most comprehensive collection of British art outside the United Kingdom. He also established the Paul Mellon Centre for Studies in British Art in London, a key institution dedicated to promoting education, research, and academic publishing in the field.

¹ London 1995, p. 108.

² R. Strong, The English Icon: Elizabethan & Jacobean Portraiture, London 1969, p. 155, no. 101, reproduced.

³ London 1995, pp. 108–9, no. 58, reproduced in colour.

⁴ London 1995, p. 109, no. 59, reproduced in colour.

⁵ London 1995, p. 110, no. 60, reproduced in colour.

⁶ Inv. no. B1973.1.14; N. Blackwood, ‘Meta Incognita: Some hypotheses on Cornelis Ketel's lost English and Inuit portraits’, in Nederlands Kunsthistorisch Jaarboek, 2016, vol. 66, p. 35, fig. 2, reproduced in colour.