Samuel Cooper, Portrait of Dorothy Spencer, Countess of Sunderland, 1653

Chicago:

Blythe Sobol, “Samuel Cooper, Portrait of Dorothy Spencer, Countess of Sunderland, 1653,” catalogue entry in Aimee Marcereau DeGalan, Blythe Sobol, and Maggie Keenan, The Starr Collection of Portrait Miniatures, 1500–1850: The Collections of the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, vol. 2, ed. Aimee Marcereau DeGalan (Kansas City, MO: Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, 2024), https://doi.org/10.37764/8322.5.1204.

MLA:

Sobol, Blythe. “Samuel Cooper, Portrait of Dorothy Spencer, Countess of Sunderland, 1653,” ccatalogue entry. Aimee Marcereau DeGalan, Blythe Sobol, and Maggie Keenan. The Starr Collection of Portrait Miniatures, 1500–1850: The Collections of the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, edited by Aimee Marcereau DeGalan, vol. 2, Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, 2024. doi: 10.37764/8322.5.1204.

See the artist’s biography in volume 4.

On October 6, 1617, Dorothy Spencer (née Sidney; later Smythe), Countess of Sunderland, was baptized in Isleworth, the daughter of court beauty Lady Dorothy Percy, Countess of Leicester (1598–1659) and Robert Sidney, 2nd Earl of Leicester (1595–1677). Spencer was immortalized in verse by the poet Edmund Waller (1606–1687), who christened her “Sacharissa” after the Latin word for sugar, sacharum. She rejected Waller’s proposal of marriage in favor of that of Henry Spencer, 1st Earl of Sunderland and 3rd Baron Spencer of Wormleighton (1620–1643). They married in 1639.¹ He was killed four years later at the Battle of Newbury on September 20, 1643, leaving behind his pregnant wife and three young children.² Dorothy’s mother wrote to her husband after Henry’s death that “Doll [Dorothy] thinks of nothing but her great loss which I confess to be beyond expression.”³

In 1652, the widowed countess married Sir Robert Smythe (1627–ca. 1664) of Bidborough, Kent, with whom she had a son, also named Robert Smythe (1653–1695).⁴ Samuel Cooper painted this miniature of her in 1653, the year of young Robert’s birth, perhaps to commemorate that milestone and her recent remarriage.⁵ Spencer gazes knowingly at the viewer with a hint of a smile, austerely attired in black and white.⁶ Her deep-necked black bodice trimmed in wide white ribbon culminates in a plump bow at the center, echoed by the pearl necklace at her throat. Cooper situates her in front of a window, a background he frequently used to extend the picture plane, but in this miniature the blue sky, fleeced with wispy clouds, is especially beautifully rendered in delicate washes of watercolor. Cooper’s refined shading technique elevates the otherwise ascetic portrait, capturing the soft pleats and folds of white trim on the sitter’s dress, the gleam of the pearls accenting her ears and throat, and the glossy corkscrews of her fashionable ringlets.

Sir Anthony Van Dyck (1599–1641) painted the countess in a similar setting around 1639, likely on the occasion of her first marriage.⁷ While Van Dyck was a major influence on Cooper’s early miniatures, Cooper did not typically copy directly after other artists.⁸ He did, however, paint copies of his own miniatures. A second version of this portrait is in the collection of the Duke of Buccleuch and Queensberry, titled A Lady, Called Dorothy Sidney, Countess of Sunderland.⁹ The sitter in both miniatures strongly resembles Van Dyck’s portraits of Dorothy Spencer, Countess of Sunderland.¹⁰ The Buccleuch miniature is also signed with Cooper’s monogram but is not dated, suggesting that the Nelson-Atkins portrait, dated 1653, is the first version painted by Cooper. There may be at least one more variant, as an unfinished rendering of the “Countess of Sunderland” was in Cooper’s studio at the time of his death in 1672.¹¹

Dorothy Spencer, Countess of Sunderland, died twelve years later, in 1684, and lives on through her portraits and her poetic legacy. As the later engraving on the miniature’s seventeenth-century ormolu case suggests, she will forever be associated with her eternal epithet as Waller’s Sacharissa.¹²

Notes

1. Warren Chernaik, “Spencer [née Sidney], Dorothy, countess of Sunderland [known as Sacharissa],” Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, September 23, 2004, https://doi.org/10.1093/ref:odnb/26120. They had four children: Lady Dorothy Spencer (1640–1670), Robert Spencer, later 2nd Earl of Sunderland (1641–1702), Lady Penelope Spencer (1642–1667), and The Hon. Harry Spencer (1643–1649).

2. While Dorothy’s brothers Philip Sidney, later 3rd Earl of Leicester (1619–1698), and Algernon Sidney (1623–1683) supported the Parliamentary cause during the English Civil War, her husband, Henry Spencer, was a Royalist who fought for King Charles I. Henry was created 1st Earl of Sunderland for his services to the king at the Battle of Edgehill in 1642. Chernaik, “Dorothy, countess of Sunderland.”

3. The Countess of Leicester to the Earl of Leicester, September 24, 1643, in The Correspondence (c. 1626–1659) of Dorothy Percy Sidney, Countess of Leicester, eds. Michael G. Brennan, Noel J. Kinnamon, Margaret P. Hannay (Abingdon-on-Thames, UK: Taylor and Francis, 2017), 178.

4. Chernaik, “Dorothy, countess of Sunderland.” Genealogical research indicates that Smythe and Spencer were related by marriage. Robert Smythe’s grandmother Sarah Blount’s first husband was Robert’s grandfather, John Smythe. After being widowed in 1625, she married Sir Robert Sidney, 1st Earl of Leicester, the grandfather of Dorothy Spencer, when Dorothy was a child. After Dorothy’s marriage to Robert Smythe, she does not appear to have taken Smythe’s name and continued to be styled the Countess of Sunderland. Michael G. Brennan and Noel J. Kinnamon, A Sidney Chronology: 1554–1654 (London: Palgrave Macmillan, 2003), 240.

5. The writer and diarist John Evelyn wrote an account of their wedding: “9th July, 1652, we went to see Penshurst, the Earl of Leicester’s, famous once for its gardens and excellent fruit, and for the noble conversation that was wont to meet there, celebrated by that illustrious person, Sir Philip Sidney, who there composed divers of his pieces. It stands in a park finely watered, and was now full of company, on the marriage of my old fellow-collegiate, Mr. Robert Smythe, who married my Lady Dorothy Sidney, widow of the Earl of Sunderland.” John Evelyn, Diary and Correspondence of John Evelyn, ed. William Bray (London: H. G. Bohn, 1859), 1:294–95.

6. Under Oliver Cromwell’s Puritan regime, court fashions are thought to have transitioned to more muted colors, with black being particularly favored, although recent scholarship by Patrick Little and other fashion historians has called this into question. Patrick Little, “Fashion at the Cromwellian Court” Court Historian 16, no. 1 (2011): 25–42, https://doi.org/10.1179/cou.2011.16.1.003.

7. Sir Anthony Van Dyck, Portrait of Lady Dorothy Sidney, Lady Spencer, Countess of Sunderland (1617–1684), ca. 1639, oil on canvas, Petworth House, Petworth, West Sussex.

8. This may have been a rebuttal of the artistic practice of his uncle, John Hoskins, who relied heavily on assistants and often copied oil paintings by Van Dyck in miniature. John Murdoch et al., The English Miniature (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1981), 106–7.

9. Samuel Cooper, A Lady, Called Dorothy Sidney, Countess of Sunderland, in Black Dress Edged with White, Landscape Background, watercolor on vellum, Drumlanrig Castle, Thornhill, UK. The Buccleuch version is 2 1/2 inches high, suggesting comparable dimensions to the Nelson-Atkins miniature, although it is framed in a gilt metal case that matches cases made for other Buccleuch miniatures.

10. We are grateful to His Grace the Duke of Buccleuch and Mrs. Sandra Howat for giving us access to the extraordinary collection at Bowhill House.

11. Cosimo III de’ Medici, who was eagerly seeking portraits by Cooper in 1674, enclosed a list of nineteen miniatures for sale by Cooper’s widow, Christiana, in a letter to his London agent, Francesco Terriesi, including a miniature of “the Countess of Sunderland.” The note details that the listed miniatures were “priced at £100 each but are in fact being sold for £50,” a sum Cosimo and his agent found too dear. By 1683, Christiana Cooper, growing desperate, sent the list of miniatures to Cosimo again, with the miniature this time described as “My lady Sunderland, face finished and nothing else,” but Cosimo had lost interest. The location of the unfinished Countess of Sunderland is unknown. Daphne Foskett, Samuel Cooper (London: Faber and Faber, 1974), 61–67. Alternatively, “Countess of Sunderland” could refer to Anne Digby, who married Dorothy’s elder son, Robert Spencer, 2nd Earl of Sunderland, in 1665.

12. Her celebrity persisted into the eighteenth century; in 1709, the writer Richard Steele (1672–1729) wrote in The Tatler, “The fine women they show me nowadays are at best but pretty girls to me, who have seen Sacharissa, when all the world repeated the poems she inspired.” Richard Steele, “From my own Apartment, August 29,” The Tatler no. 61 (1709; repr., Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2015), 2:84–94.

Probably commissioned by Lady Dorothy Spencer, Countess of Sunderland (1617–1684), in 1653;

Possibly by descent to Lord George Spencer, 2nd Earl Spencer (1758–1834), by 1783;

Possibly with James Edwards, Esq., Pall Mall, by 1827;

Possibly sold at Catalogue of a Very Valuable and Extensive Collection of Fine Miniature Portraits, in Water Colours, or Oil and Enamel, Christie’s, London, February 3, 1827, lot 72, as Dorothy, Countess of Sunderland; (Waller’s Sacharissa) [1];

Henry Danby Seymour (1820–1877), Ashridge, by 1877;

By descent to his niece, Miss Jane Margaret Seymour (1873–1943), Knoyle, Wiltshire, by 1928;

Purchased from her sale, Catalogue of Valuable Portrait Miniatures, Sotheby’s, London, May 9, 1928, lot 47, as Dorothea, Countess of Sunderland (the Sacharissa of Waller), by Harry Seal (1873–1948), Ullesthorpe House, Leicestershire, 1928–1948 [2];

Purchased from his posthumous sale, Catalogue of The Choice Collection of Portrait Miniatures formed by the late Harry Seal, Esq., Christie, Manson, and Woods, London, February 16, 1949, lot 92, as Dorothea, Countess of Sunderland, by H.E. Backer, London, 1949 [3];

Mr. John W. (1905–2000) and Mrs. Martha Jane (1906–2011) Starr, Kansas City, MO, by 1958;

Their gift to The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, MO, 1958.

Notes

[1] A miniature described as “Dorothy, Countess of Sunderland; (Waller’s Sacharissa) by S. Cooper; very fine” is listed in Catalogue of a Very Valuable and Extensive Collection of Fine Miniature Portraits, in Water Colours, or Oil and Enamel, Christie’s, London, February 3, 1827. The seller of lot 72 is not listed, but it could be James Edwards, Esq., who is listed among the consignors to the sale. In 1801, Edwards received a lot of “ten original miniatures, portraits of the Stuart family,” received as payment for a diplomatic favor to George Spencer, 2nd Earl Spencer, then First Lord of the Admiralty (1794–1801). Spencer was a direct descendant of the Countess of Sunderland and could have been in possession of the Nelson-Atkins miniature, but it does not match the description of the ten Stuart miniatures gifted to Edwards. J.J. Foster, British Miniature Painter and their Works (London: Sampson Low, Marston and Dickinsons, 1898), 115–16.

[2] The lot is described as “Dorothea, Countess of Sunderland (the Sacharissa of Waller), by Samuel Cooper, signed in monogram, and dated 1653, head and shoulders, three-quarters right, with luxuriant ringlets, in a black dress edged in muslin and wearing a necklace of large pearls, oval, 2 3/8 in.” It is possible that the Starrs acquired this miniature from Backer after the conclusion of the Seal sale, from which they had directly purchased several miniatures.

[3] The sales catalogue reads, “Dorothea, Countess of Sunderland (1617–1684), by Samuel Cooper, signed with monogram and dated 1653. Daughter of Robert Sidney, 2nd Earl of Leicester; Waller’s Sacharissa; three-quarter face to the left, in black dress edged with muslin, wearing a necklace of large pearls, with luxuriant ringlets. Oval – 2 3/8 in. high. From the Collection of Miss J.M. Seymour, 1928.” This is most likely Hans Backer, who was a popular miniature dealer and he sometimes bid for the Victoria and Albert Museum, London. This name comes up in Starr correspondence (See letter of October 11, 1955, University of Missouri-Kansas City archives, Box 22, Folder 9).

Samuel Cooper, Portrait of a Lady, called Dorothy Sidney, Countess of Sunderland, n.d., watercolor on vellum, 2 1/2 x 2 in. (3.8 x 5.1 cm), Richard Scott, 10th Duke of Buccleuch and 12th Duke of Queensberry, Bowhill House, Selkirk, Scotland.

Samuel Cooper and His Contemporaries, National Portrait Gallery, London, February 6–May 12, 1974, no. 25, as Portrait of an Unknown Lady.

The Starr Foundation Collection of Miniatures, Royal Ontario Museum, Toronto, December 8, 1972–January 14, 1973, no cat., no. 10, as Dorothea, Countess of Sunderland.

Catalogue of a Very Valuable and Extensive Collection of Fine Miniature Portraits, in Water Colours, or Oil and Enamel (London: Christie’s, February 3, 1827), lot 72.

Catalogue of Valuable Portrait Miniatures (London: Sotheby’s, May 9, 1928), 9.

Catalogue of The Choice Collection of Portrait Miniatures formed by the late Harry Seal, Esq. (London: Christie, Manson, and Woods, February 16, 1949), 18, (repro.), as Dorothea, Countess of Sunderland.

Bulletin (The Nelson Gallery and Atkins Museum) 1, no. 2 (December 1958): 5, (repro.), as Dorothea, Countess of Sunderland.

Ross E. Taggart, ed., Handbook of the Collections in the William Rockhill Nelson Gallery of Art and Mary Atkins Museum of Fine Arts, 4th ed. (Kansas City, MO: William Rockhill Nelson Gallery of Art and Mary Atkins Museum of Fine Arts, 1959), 265, (repro.), as Dorothea, Countess of Sunderland.

Ross E. Taggart, The Starr Collection of Miniatures in the William Rockhill Nelson Gallery (Kansas City, MO: Nelson Gallery-Atkins Museum, 1971), no. 10, p. 11, (repro.), as Dorothea, Countess of Sunderland.

Daphne Foskett, Samuel Cooper and His Contemporaries, exh. cat. (London: Her Majesty’s Stationary Office, 1974), 25.

Deborah Emont Scott, ed., The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art: A Handbook of the Collection (Kansas City, MO: The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, 2008), 84, as Dorothea Countess of Sutherland [sic].