Lady Kytson

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.