The 1550’s and 1560’s

The idea behind this page was to trace the fashion of the 1550’s and 1560’s in England, especially the development of the ruff.

Portrait of a lady

c.1550

Anglo-Flemish School

Christie's

This portrait is also mentioned in Christie's sale catalogue.

Sir Nicholas le Strange

1551

Hans Eworth

Katherine Hyde, Lady le Strange

1551

Hans Eworth

Queen Mary I

1554

Hans Eworth

National Portrait Gallery | NPG 4861

Mary I (1516–1558), Queen of England and Ireland

1554

Hans Eworth

Society of Antiquaries of London: Burlington House

Mary Tudor, Queen of England, Second Wife of Philip II

1554

Anthonis Mor

Museo del Prado

The Lady in Black

c.1554

Attributed to William Scrots

Sotheby's

Provenance

Suggestions for the identity of the sitter in this portrait have included Lady Margaret Douglas (1515-1578) and Margaret Howard, Lady Arundell, the sister of Queen Katherine Howard, based on provenance.

The portrait was first recorded by George Vertue in 1733 when at Sutton Place, Surrey, the seat of the Weston family as 'a Lady at len. in black. manner Holbein'.

Henry Stuart (1545–1567), Lord Darnley, Consort of Mary, Queen of Scots

1555

Hans Eworth

Scottish National Portrait Gallery

Portrait of Mary Fitzalan, Duchess of Norfolk

1556

Hans Eworth

Yale Center for British Art

Katherine Brydges, Lady Dudley

The Fitzwilliam Museum Portrait

Called Unknown Lady (Perhaps Lady Jane Grey)

Formerly Mary Tudor when Princess

The middle of the 1550's*

Hans Eworth

The Fitzwilliam Museum | PD.1-1963

The fashions of Lady Jane Grey's youth. Notice the squared brim of the French hood and the raised neckline with ruffles.

*Both J. Stephan Edwards and Lee Porritt (The Beaufort Miniature Portrait – Lady Jane Grey Revisited) dates the Fitzwilliam Portrait to the middle of the 1550's, due to the flat crown of the French hood and the standing collar of the outer partlet (the black velvet piece across her shoulders, tied under the arms), which strongly indicate the mid-1550's, and the frill seen at the neck which by the mid-1550's had grown in size and had begun to surround the face.

(For my identification of the sitter in this painting as Katherine Brydges, Lady Dudley, please see my The Fitzwilliam Portrait page. Reasons for identification: The lady in the Fitzwilliam Portrait is also portrayed in a miniature by Levina Teerlinc from around 1560 now in the Victoria and Albert Museum. Katherine Brydges, Lady Dudley was a lady-in-waiting to both Mary I Tudor and Elizabeth I Tudor, and would therefore have been in the perfect position to be an object of portraits done by court painters Hans Eworth and Levina Teerlinc. Furthermore, she was born in c.1524, being in her early thirties when the Fitzwilliam Portrait was painted, and in perfect keeping with the age of the lady in the portrait. She was married in either late 1555 or early 1556 to Edward Sutton, 4th Baron Dudley, in a match encouraged by Queen Mary, making it likely that this was a wedding portrait, as that date matches perfectly with the assessment of both J. Stephan Edwards and Lee Porritt that this portrait dates to the middle of the 1550's. Lastly, the embroidery of the lady's collar has a pattern that can be found again on other members of the Brydges family. It is probably a stylised version of a bridge, a play on the family name of Bridges. There is also the matter of the girdle prayer book the lady is holding in the portrait. It is decorated with what appears to be a D. Which would correspond with her new married name of Dudley. Two years previously Lady Jane Grey Dudley, daughter of the Marquess of Dorset had left her beloved girdle prayer book to Sir John Brydges, Lieutenant of the Tower of London. He was Katherine's father.)

Bess of Hardwick

1550’s

Mary I

1557[1][2][3]

Hans Eworth

Dickinson Private Advisors & Fine Art Dealers

Portrait of an Unknown Lady

1557

Hans Eworth

Oil on panel | 23 ½ x 19 in. (59.7 x 48.3 cm)

The Tate Gallery

Perhaps Anne Wootton alias Woodhouse alias Reppes, Mrs. Bassingbourne Gawdy[4]

Unknown Lady, Formerly Lady Anne Penruddocke[5]

1557

Hans Eworth

Oil on Panel | 42 x 31 in.

Howard de Walden Collection, London

Amy Robsart Dudley

Called Lady Jane Grey

Second half of the second half of the 1550's

Levina Teerlinc

Watercolour on vellum applied to card

© Private Collection

The Beaufort Miniature

(For my identification of the sitter in this painting as Amy Robsart Dudley, please see my The Yale Miniature page. Reasons for identification: The lady in the Beaufort Miniature is the same one as the lady in the Yale Miniature. I have always found the arguments that the lady in the Yale Miniature is Amy Robsart persuasive.)

Mary Neville, Lady Dacre; Gregory Fiennes, 10th Baron Dacre

1559

Hans Eworth

National Portrait Gallery | NPG 6855

Katherine Brydges, Lady Dudley

Unknown Lady Once Called Frances Brandon, Duchess of Suffolk © Victoria and Albert Museum

c.1560

Levina Teerlinc

Watercolour on vellum

Victoria and Albert Museum | P.48-1984

(For my identification of the sitter in this painting as Katherine Brydges, Lady Dudley, please see my The Fitzwilliam Portrait page.)

An Unknown Lady, called 'Anne Ayscough/Askew, Mrs Thomas Kyme (1521-1546)'

1560

Hans Eworth

Oil on Panel | 26 x 20 in. (660 x 508 mm)

National Trust | NT 1298241

Tatton Park, Cheshire

The Skeffington Portrait

Dorothy Wadham (née Petre)

1560

Follower of Hans Eworth

Copy of an Original Portrait in the Egremont Private Collection

Formerly in the Duke of Sutherland's Collection

Christie's

(For my identification of the sitter in this painting as Dorothy Wadham (née Petre), please see the discussion of this portrait on my For Reference page, and I believe I have conclusively identified the sitter on my The Pagets page.)

Agnes Keith, Countess of Moray

1562

Hans Eworth

Margaret Audley, Duchess of Norfolk

1562

Hans Eworth

Susan Bertie, Countess of Kent

1567

Katherine de Vere, Baroness Windsor, 24 years old

1567

Master of the Countess of Warwick

The Arkwright Portrait

Edward Windsor, 3rd Baron Windsor, and his family

1568

Collection of the Marquess of Bute

Portrait of a Lady Aged 34

1569

Circle of Master of the Countess of Warwick

Sotheby's

Tracing the Ruff Yet Further – 1570’s and 1610’s

Lady Margaret Douglas, Countess of Lennox

1572

The Royal Collection | RCIN 401183

Portrait of Walter Devereux (1539–1576), First Earl of Essex

1572

British Painter

The Metropolitan Museum of Art

Dorothy Petre Wadham (1535 – 16 May 1618)

Portrait of a Woman

1572

British School, 16th Century

Oil on panel | 48.9 x 36.4 cm (support, canvas/panel/str external)

The Royal Collection | RCIN 402655

I have dated this painting to 1572 based on the collar. It is identical to the one worn by Walter Devereux (1539–1576), 1st Earl of Essex in the portrait inscribed 1572 above. For my identification of the sitter as Dorothy Petre Wadham see our For Reference page and our The Pagets page. The Royal Collection points to another portrait which appears to represent the same woman at Petworth, with another version of the portrait at Petworth belonging to the Duke of Sutherland. The copy shown above owned by the Duke of Sutherland was sold by Christie's in 1972. It is inscribed with the date 1560 and the sitter's age, 24, meaning that she was born in either 1535 or 1536. This precludes Frances Brandon, whom the portrait in the Royal Collection has often been associated with. She was born in 1517. Petworth is the home of the Egremonts, and searching through their female ancestors, I came over Dorothy Petre Wadham. She is not a direct ancestress, as she and her husband did not have any children. However, the Egremonts are direct descendants of one of her husband's sisters, and were his eventual heirs. There is still another, fully authenticated portrait of her at Petworth, still belonging to the Egremonts. She had many portraits of herself painted, and we know, from these fully authenticated portraits that she was born in either 1534 or 1535. This matches precisely with the birth year of the sitter in the other portrait. Furthermore, there is a clear resemblance between the striking features of the lady in the portraits and the features of Dorothy Petre Wadham in her authenticated portraits.

Portrait of Mary Kytson, Wife of Thomas Lord Darcy

1583

Manner of George Gower

Sotheby's

Portrait of Mary Kytson, Lady Darcy of Chiche, later Lady Rivers

c. 1590

British School

The Tate Gallery

Mary Rogers, Lady Harington

1592

Marcus Gheeraerts II

The Tate Gallery

Portrait of an Aristocratic Lady wearing a lace veil, ruff and elaborate jewel encrusted tunic holding a book

1593

Follower George Gower

Dorothy, Wife of Henry Huddleston, Aged 17

1594

St. Edmund's College, University of Cambridge

Margaret Dormer, Lady Constable

1599

Marcus Gheeraerts the Younger

Burton Constable Hall -Skirlaugh East Yorkshire UK

A lady traditionally called Lady Cobham

Rowland Lockey

Mary Browne, Lady St. John and Lady Petre, Aged 19

c. 1621

Notes:

[1] That must be this portrait: «Indeed, despite her own affinity for things Spanish, Mary was herself depicted wearing a much narrower – and notably free-form and unstarched – Spanish-style ruff only once.2 She more commonly wore the standing-collared partlet seen in so many of the other portraits included in this study. Even in portraits that depict Mary wearing a chemise under her partlet, the collar usually has a loosely flowing and unstarched simple ruffle.» (J. Stephan Edwards, A Queen of a New Invention, p.114) «2 Queen Mary I, Hans Eworth, 1557, oil on wood panel, 8 x 6 1/2 in., private collection.» (J. Stephan Edwards, A Queen of a New Invention, p.115)

Dickinson Private Advisors & Fine Art Dealers does specify that the portrait is oil on panel, measuring 22 x 17.3 cm. (8⅝ x 6¾ in.).

This is almost exactly the exact measurements mentioned by J. Stephan Edwards, but not quite.

Another possibility is that J. Stephan Edwards is referring to the portrait in footnote 2.

These two portraits are almost (but not quite) identical. Mary is dressed in the same outfit, however, and this portrait too is dated to 1557.

[2] Of Crymsen Tissue: The Construction of a Queen. Identity, Legitimacy and the Wardrobe of Mary Tudor

This portrait is almost (but not quite) identical. Mary is dressed in the same outfit, however, and this portrait too is dated to 1557.

[3] This excellent overview over the portraits of Hans Eworth dates both portraits to 1557. It has this portrait as being 8 x 6 ½ inches, while the one that we only have a black and white photograph of as being 9 ⅞ x 7 ½ inches, so it appears to be this portrait J. Stephan Edwards meant. 

[4] Hope Walker and Kate Emerson suggest that sitter in Unknown Lady, Formerly Lady Anne Penruddocke may in fact be Anne Wootton alias Woodhouse alias Reppes, Mrs. Bassingbourne Gawdy:

ANNE WOTTON (1536 – June 1588)

Anne Wotton was the only daughter and heir of John Wotton (Wooten/Wootton) of North Tudenham, Norfolk (d. 14 November 1545) and Elizabeth Bardwell and the granddaughter of the John Wotton who, sometime after 1541, married Mary Neville, Lady Dacre as her second husband. In 1545, Anne’s wardship was held by John Millicent, who sold it to Sir Anthony Rouse. In 1547, Rouse sold it to William Woodhouse. In 1554, Anne married Sir Thomas Woodhouse of Waxham (1535–1556). In 1557, she married Henry Reppes or Repps of Mendham, Suffolk (1509 – 10 February 1558). Both marriages were childless. On 25 September 1558 she married Bassingborne Gawdy of West Harling, Norfolk (1534 – 20 January 1589/90). Their children were Bassingborne (19 May 1560 – 3 May 1606) and Philip (13 July 1562 – 27 May 1617). Portraits: Hans Eworth, who painted two portraits of Lady Neville, is also said to have painted portraits of Anne and her third husband (now lost); Anne Wotton may be the subject of the portrait called “Lady Anne Penruddocke” which gives the age of the sitter as 20 in 1557.

Anne Wotton – A Who's Who of Tudor Women

Hope Walker suggests this in Hans Eworth Catalogue Raisonné: Catalogue Overview – Monogrammed & Documented Works.

In the article The Painter HE (‘ Hans Eworth.’) by Lionel Cust in the Second Annual Volume of the Walpole Society the following description is given of two portraits of Bassingbourne Gawdy and his wife:

«1557 BASSINGBORNE GAWDY and ANNE WOOTTON his wife.

Vertue (Brit. Mus. Add. MS. 23070, fo. 75) notes: 'Amongst old paintings at Bow left by Mr. Le Neve Norroy at his house there. Bassingborne Gawdy Esq. on board, small life, ætatis 22. The mark of the painter HE. 1557 ... his wife ætat 20. HE. the mark of the Painter also. These two pictures, as they are not half so big as the life, are drawn with a pretty good spirit and firm manner, the colouring faded.'

Bassingborne Gawdy of Mendham, Norfolk, son of Thomas Gawdy of Redenhall, Norfolk, Serjeant-at-law, and Anne Bassingborne his wife, married in 1558 Anne, daughter of John Wootton of Tudenham and Elizabeth Bardwell his wife, and grand-daughter of John Wootton of Tudenham, whose second wife was Mary Nevill, Baroness Dacre (see above). Anne Wootton had been previously married, first to Thomas Wodehouse, and secondly to Henry Repps.»

That does seem to be a very good match with portrait of an Unknown Lady, Formerly Lady Anne Penruddocke.

[5] See On the Portrait of ‘Lady Anne Pendruddocke’ in a Private London Collection, Compiled by Hope Walker, MPhil/PhD Candidate | The Courtauld Institute of Art

Mary Fitzalan, Duchess of Norfolk (1540-1557) Eighteenth Century

1556

English School

Unknown Lady (Perhaps Lady Jane Grey) 

Formerly Mary Tudor when Princess

C. 1550-5

Hans Eworth

The Fitzwilliam Museum Portrait

The fashions of Lady Jane Grey's youth. Notice the squared brim of the French hood and the raised neckline with ruffles.

Bess of Hardwick

1550's

Unknown Woman

1557

Hans Eworth 

Mary Neville, Lady Dacre; Gregory Fiennes, 10th Baron Dacre

1559

NPG 6855

Hans Eworth

Elizabeth FitzGerald, Countess of Lincoln

1560

Steven van der Meulen

Agecroft Hall, Richmond, Virginia

Elizabeth Leyburn, Duchess of Norfolk

C.1560

Attributed to Hans Eworth

Called Anne Askew

1560

Hans Eworth

Unknown Woman

1560

Follower of Hans Eworth

Agnes Keith, Countess of Moray

1562

Hans Eworth

Margaret Audley, Duchess of Norfolk

1562

Hans Eworth

Susan Bertie, Countess of Kent

1567

Katherine de Vere, Baroness Windsor, 24 years old

1567

Master of the Countess of Warwick

The Arkwright Portrait

Edward Windsor, 3rd Baron Windsor, and his family

1568

Collection of the Marquess of Bute

Comments

I've an image of a Tudor era painting of a woman with a large semi-transparent ruff. It has Aetatis Sve 20; Ano.Dn. 1533 on it. Does this seem too early for oversized ruffs to have existed?

Oh, that is excellent news! How exciting! 😊

Yes, that is the painting I'm referring to! I've been in contact with J.Stephan Edwards today and it seems likely the date of 1533 has been altered from 1593 or 1583 with the first '3' being different

To add to what I wrote below, might this be the Harington Portrait you are referring to? J.Stephan Edwards writes about it here: https://somegreymatter.com/haringtonportrait.htm

"The date inscription, ‘AÑO DÑ 1533’, was added or altered well after the painting was created, probably in order to support the spurious identification as Elizabeth I (below, bottom).

It was rendered by a different hand than the inscription indicating

the lady’s age (below, top), which is itself original to the larger work. [...] The text ‘AÑO DÑ 1533’ is itself highly problematic. Since the Latin phrase ‘anno domini’ ordinarily indicates

the year in which a work was executed, any viewer would assume that the portrait dates to 1533. Yet in the context of Elizabeth Tudor, 1533 can refer only to the year of her birth. One possible

explanation for this irregularity might be that the letterer simply did not know the correct meaning of ‘anno domini’ and instead understood it to denote the year in which a person had been born.

Alternatively, in light of the depression in the surface of the painting beneath the first ‘3’, that single numeral may have been altered even after this second inscription was added, with the change

undertaken deliberately to increase the relevance of that inscription to Elizabeth. The Harington family interpreted the inscription early on to indicate that the painting depicted Elizabeth at age 20

in 1553, twenty years after her birth in 1533 and when she was still a princess. Yet the costume worn by the lady is entirely inconsistent with English fashion of 1553, when Elizabeth was 20 years

old. Neither is it plausible that Elizabeth would have given to John Harington in 1592 a portrait that was already forty years old. We must conclude that the identification of

the sitter as Elizabeth I as she appeared in 1553 is entirely false." J.Stephan Edwards identifies the sitter as Mary Rogers, Lady Harington. I write a bit about the Harrington Portrait on

my page The Anglesey Abbey Portrait,
https://www.katherinethequeen.com/442570197, where I think I have identified several more portraits by the same artist's hand :) Hope this is of help to you!

Yes, unfortunately. The ruff only started in the 1550's, and it would not become oversized for a few decades yet. My guess is that is a later inscription, done to identify the lady as someone who

would have been 20 in 1533. If you have a link to the image, I can take a look.