Portrait of Theodore Turquet de Mayerne (1573-1655)

ArtistAttributed to Peter Paul Rubens (Flemish, b. 1577, Siegen Westphalia; d. 1640, Antwerp)

Datecirca 1630–1631

MediumOil on canvas

Dimensions55 5/8 x 42 7/8 in. (141.3 x 108.9 cm)
Frame: 70 x 59 1/2 in. (177.8 x 151.1 cm)

ClassificationsPaintings

Credit LinePurchased with funds from the State of North Carolina

Object number52.9.106

On View

Not on view

Collections

ProvenanceCreated Antwerp, Flanders [present day Belgium], ca. 1630–1630. Possibly Dr. Theodore Turquet de Mayerne (1573–1655), London, by March 1631. Dr. Richard Mead (1673–1754), London; [his sale, Abraham Langford, London, March 20–22, 1754, no. 40, as Sir Theodore Mayerne by Rubens]; Ralph Verney (1714–1791), 2nd Earl Verney, and Mr. Arundel (possibly Charles Howard [1720–1786], 10th Duke of Norfolk). [1] William Ponsonby (1704– 1793), 2nd Earl of Bessborough, Bessborough House, Roehampton, London; [his sale, Christie’s, London, February 7, 1801, no. 88, as Portrait of Sir Theodore Mayerne, by Rubens]; bought by Henry Walton for William Petty Fitzmaurice (1737–1805), 1st Marquess of Lansdowne, Bowood Park, Wiltshire, England and Lansdowne House, London; [his sale, Peter Coxe, Burrell and Foster, London, February 25, 1806, no. 28, as Portrait of Sir Theodore Mayne, by Rubens, bought in?]; [second Lansdowne sale, Peter Coxe, Burrell and Foster, London, March 19, 1806, no. 47, as Portrait of Sir Theodore Mayne, by Rubens]; John Hoppner, R.A. (1758–1810), London; [his sale, Christie’s, London, May 19, 1810, no. 124, as Portrait of Sir Theodore Mayerne, by Rubens]; Frederick Ponsonby (1758–1844), 3 rd Earl of Bessborough, Cavendish Square, London; [his sale, Christie & Manson, London, April 1, 1848, no. 77, as Sir Theodore Mayerne, by Rubens] [2]. Andrew Rutherfurd, (1791–1854), Lord Rutherfurd, PC, FRSE, Lauriston Castle, Edinburgh; [3] [his sale, T. Nisbet, Edinburgh, April 9, 1855, no. 154, as Portrait of Sir Theodore Mayerne, by Rubens]. Major William Lindsay Mercer (1858–1926), Huntingtower House, Perth, Scotland; [4] to his wife, Ellen Mercer; [Mercer sale, Thomas Love & Sons, Perth, June 5–7, 1951, no. 403]; [David M. Koetser Gallery, London]; sold to NCMA, 1952.

[1] An annotated version of the sale catalogue in the Getty Research Institute lists the buyers as “Mr. Verney Mr. Arundel”. Starting in the 17th century the Earldom of Arundel has been held by the Dukes of Norfolk.
[2] One annotated version of the 1848 sale catalogue lists a buyer for the painting as “Ly[Lady?] Ih. Bd” but this inscription has not yet been deciphered. The work may have been bought in as the later Bessborough sale (Christie’s, London,July 10–11, 1850), included a portrait of Mayerne: lot 146c (unknown artist). It is unlikely, though possible, that the work would have lost its attribution to Rubens only two years later, having remained in the same collection. The Getty Provenance Index notes that many lots had been bought in at the Bessborough sales of 1801 and 1848.
3] Also frequently spelled Rutherford.
[4] It’s possible that the work was purchased in 1855 by W.L. Mercer’s father, Major General William Drummond Mercer (1796–1871), and then passed from father to son. This would account for the gap between W.L. Mercer’s birth date of 1858 and the Rutherfurd sale date of 1855. Evidence of a direct transfer between the Rutherfurd and Mercer collections has not yet been found but, given that both collections were located near each other in Scotland, this is highly likely.