Lot 70: English School, circa 1555

English School, circa 1555 >Portrait of Edward Courtenay, 1st Earl of Devon (1523-1556), half-length, in a black jerkin tied by points and a ruff, leaning on a stone ledge, ruins beyond<br>inscribed 'En puer, ac insons et adhuc juvenilibus annis / Annos bis septem, carcere claus eram, / me pater his tenuit vinclis, que filia solvit, / sors mea sic tandem veritur a superis' (upper left) and with identifying inscription 'E. Cortenay Comes Devonie' (lower right) >oil on panel<br>43¾ x 31¾ in. (110.2 x 80.7 cm.)

London, The British Institution, 1820, no. 183; 1846, no. 149.

H. Walpole, Anecdotes of Paintings in England, collected by G. Vertue, London, 1782, I, p. 220, as Antonio More [sic]. >G. Vertue, 'Notebooks, II', The Walpole Society, XX, 1932, p. 40, as 'supposed to be painted by ... Zuchero; consequently not so - because he was not then in England'. >G. Scharf, A Descriptive and Historical Catalogue of the Collection of Pictures at Woburn Abbey, London, 1890, p. 7, no. 10. >L. Cust, 'The painter HE', Walpole Society, II, 1913, p. 21, as Hans Eworth. >F.G. Hill, Edward Courtenay, reprinted from 'Numismatic Chronicle', V, 1925/6, p. 3 [267]. >R. Strong, The English Icon: Elizabethan & Jacobean Portraiture, New York, 1969, p. 130, no. 84, as Steven van der Meulen. >C. Foley, 'A Forgotten Heritage', The World of Interiors, December 1982-Januaruy 1983, as unattributed.

The Dukes of Bedford, Woburn Abbey, by 1727, and by descent to, >Hastings Russell, 12th Duke of Bedford; his sale; Christie's, London, 19 January 1951, lot 126, as Mor (220 gns. the following).
Colonel A.V. Dower Gander, T.D. (1898-1980), until at least 1956. > Anonymous sale; Bonhams, London, 17 April 1980, lot 51, as Hans Eworth (£7,000).
with Lane Fine Art, London, 1980, from whom acquired by the present owner. >