GOWER, George

The portrait represents Frances Brydges (c. 1553-1623), daughter of Edward Fiennes de Clinton, first Earl of Lincoln (d. 1585) and wife of Giles Brydges, third Baron Chandos of Sudeley (1548-1594).

Formerly the painting was attributed to John Bettes II, titled The Duchess of Chandos.

George Goring Junior (c. 1555-1602) of Ovingdean and Danny Park, Hurstpierpoint, Sussex, MP for Lewes in 1593 and 1601, was the eldest son of George Goring (c. 1522-1594), also an MP for Lewes (elected to the English parliament in 1563).

In this portrait, the courtly aspirations of George Goring are vibrantly captured by Gower in the sitter’s resplendent costume; his fine lace cartwheel ruff and black velvet cloak embroidered in silver and gold thread with grape vines and acorns are worthy of the Elizabethan courtier he aspired to be. Golden acorns further adorn his doublet and the buttons themselves are acorn-shaped, all symbolising his pedigree as a ‘great oak’. The silk of his under-shirt peaks through his right sleeve, unbuttoned to reveal the embroidered letters ‘A’ and ’D’, the initials of his wife, Anne Denny.

Elizabeth Cornwallis, Lady Kytson (c.1547-1628) married Sir Thomas Kytson (1541-1603), of Hengrave Hall in Suffolk in 1560.

In the present portrait, she wears the bright colours that had then just come into fashion, notably her red gown with its high-status fur collar. Her sleeves, beneath gauze oversleeves, are embroidered in black thread with roses, honeysuckle and carnations. She is probably dressed for outdoors, as she is wearing, rather than carrying, her gloves, as well as a tall, masculine hat with a jewelled band and linen undercap. The exact shape of this hat was only revealed when the painting was cleaned in 1995.

A payment in Kytson’s surviving accounts for 1573 indicates that this portrait, and its companion image of Sir Thomas Kytson were painted in London by George Gower. These are the earliest extant works by Gower and, together with his Self-portrait of 1579 (private collection), form a nucleus upon which further attributions to him have been based.

In Gower’s self-portrait of 1579 is a pair of scales with his arms outweighed by dividers, the instrument of the painter’s craft; in doggerel verse at top right he says that “yovthfull wayes me did intyse [entice], from armes and uertewe [virtue] yet thankt be God for his god gift, w[hi]ch long did rest as slepe”, meaning presumably that he had neglected his talent in early youth. But “Now skill reuyues [revives] with gayne … by pensils [brushes] trade” - his profession is profitable. It is also honourable: arms display his birth, and ‘what Parents bare by iust renowne, my skill mayntenes [maintains] the prayes [praise]”.

Sir Thomas Kytson (1541-1603) was the son of a rich London merchant who had amassed a fortune through trading in cloth with the Low Countries. This wealth had raised the family up the social scale, so that when Thomas inherited Hengrave Hall in Suffolk and other estates, he was able to live in considerable style.

In 1560 Kytson married, as his second wife, Elizabeth Cornwallis and the couple remained Catholics throughout the Protestant reign of Elizabeth I (between 1558 and 1603) even briefly suffering imprisonment for their faith. Nevertheless, the Queen was to honour the Kytsons by visiting Hengrave in 1578, when she knighted Sir Thomas.

A payment in Kytson’s surviving accounts for 1573 indicates that this portrait, and its companion image of Lady Kytsonwere painted in London by George Gower.

These are the earliest extant works by Gower and, together with his Self-portrait of 1579 (private collection), form a nucleus upon which further attributions to him have been based.

Sir Thomas’s portrait has been cut down at the sides but may originally have been the same size as that of his wife.