Lot 61: Circle of Paul van Somer (Antwerp c. 1576-1621 London)

Circle of Paul van Somer (Antwerp c. 1576-1621 London)
Portrait of Diana Drury, Viscountess Wimbledon (?-1631), half-length, in a black dress with slashed sleeves, pearls and ribbons, in a feigned oval
inscribed 'The Lady Wimbleton Wife to the Lord Wimbleton' (on the cartellino of the Bedford family, lower right)
oil on canvas
31 x 24 in. (78.8 x 61 cm.)

T. Pennant, The Journey from Chester to London, London, 1782, p.373.
Catalogue of Pictures, Miniatures, Drawings and Busts at Woburn Abbey, London, 1868, p. 22, no. LX, as 'Cornelius Jansen'.
G. Scharf, A Descriptive and Historical Catalogue of the Collection of Pictures at Woburn Abbey, privately printed for Hastings, 9th Duke of Bedford, 1890, p. 43, no. 60, as 'Cornelius Jonson van Ceulen'.

The Duke of Bedford; Christie's, London, 19 January 1951, lot 111 (150 gns. to Behrens).
Major E. Beddington Behrens.

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Diana Drury was the youngest daughter of Sir William Drury of Hawstead (1550-1590), Suffolk, and the sister of Sir Robert Drury (1575-1615). In February 1616/7 she became the second wife of Edward Cecil (1572-1638), later Baron Cecil of Putney and Viscount Wimbledon, a noted soldier and politician, and grandson of William Cecil (1520/21-1598), the first Baron Burghley. The couple had one daughter, Anne, who died in infancy in 1618. Viscountess Wimbledon died in May 1631, and was buried at St Mary's Church, Wimbledon; her husband survived her and in 1635 married his third wife, Sophia, the seventeen year old daughter of Sir Edward Zouch of Woking, Surrey. Despite his three marriages, Viscount Wimbledon failed to produce a surviving male heir. Upon his death in 1638 his title became extinct, and his estate was split between his four daughters from his first marriage.