''Portrait of Mary Hill, Lady Killgrew'' is a 1638

Baroque The Baroque (, ; ) is a style of architecture, music, dance, painting, sculpture, poetry, and other arts that flourished in Europe from the early 17th century until the 1750s. In the territories of the Spanish and Portuguese empires including t ...

portrait by the

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artist

Anthony van Dyck Sir Anthony van Dyck (, many variant spellings; 22 March 1599 – 9 December 1641) was a Brabantian Flemish Baroque artist who became the leading court painter in England after success in the Southern Netherlands and Italy. The seventh c ...

. The portrait is twinned with another of the Lady's husband, William Killigrew.

Subject

Mary Hill, from

Honiley Honiley is a small village and former civil parish, now in the parish of Beausale, Haseley, Honiley and Wroxall, in the Warwick district, in the county of Warwickshire, England. It is from Kenilworth, and from Coventry on the A4177 road. The ...

Warwickshire Warwickshire (; abbreviated Warks) is a county in the West Midlands region of England. The county town is Warwick, and the largest town is Nuneaton. The county is famous for being the birthplace of William Shakespeare at Stratford-upon-Avon an ...

was the wife of Sir William Killigrew, a courtier to King

Charles I Charles I may refer to: Kings and emperors * Charlemagne (742–814), numbered Charles I in the lists of Holy Roman Emperors and French kings * Charles I of Anjou (1226–1285), also king of Albania, Jerusalem, Naples and Sicily * Charles I of ...

and later a noted playwright. The dates of her birth and death are unknown. The couple was known to have had seven children. At the time of the

English Civil War The English Civil War (1642–1651) was a series of civil wars and political machinations between Parliamentarians (" Roundheads") and Royalists led by Charles I ("Cavaliers"), mainly over the manner of England's governance and issues of re ...

(1642-1651), the couple was reduced to poverty and forced to flee the country, living separately for several years. They were reunited at the time of

The Restoration Restoration is the act of restoring something to its original state and may refer to: * Conservation and restoration of cultural heritage ** Audio restoration ** Film restoration ** Image restoration ** Textile restoration * Restoration ecology ...

in 1660, at which time Sir William regained his position at Court and Lady Mary became dresser to the dowager Queen Henrietta-Maria.

The painting

The portrait is dated 1638, a time when Sir William Killigrew was involved with partners in an attempt to drain the

Lincolnshire Lincolnshire (abbreviated Lincs.) is a county in the East Midlands of England, with a long coastline on the North Sea to the east. It borders Norfolk to the south-east, Cambridgeshire to the south, Rutland to the south-west, Leicestershire ...

fens, an immensely expensive undertaking which caused the family great economic distress, but which did not prevent their commissioning a set of husband and wife portraits. The Tate Gallery in London acquired van Dyck's '' Portrait of Sir William Killigrew'', also dated 1638, in the year 2002. The portrait of his wife was acquired from a different source in 2003. This acquisition brought together the pair of portraits for the first time in over 150 years. The portrait depicts the Lady Killigrew facing the viewer, and standing on a stone parapet. The subject is wearing a russet colored gown, cut low, with the edges of a white shift underneath. With regards to symbolism, van Dyck was known to have introduced a number of contemporary elements into English portrait-painting. The roses which the subject is touching allude to a happy marriage, and the bare rocks on the background symbolize constancy. Another portrait of Mary Hill, Lady Killigrew, "after Sir Anthony Van Dyck" is located in the collection of

Belton House Belton House is a Grade I listed country house in the parish of Belton near Grantham in Lincolnshire, England, built between 1685 and 1688 by Sir John Brownlow, 3rd Baronet. It is surrounded by formal gardens and a series of avenues leading t ...

(now part of the

National Trust The National Trust, formally the National Trust for Places of Historic Interest or Natural Beauty, is a charity and membership organisation for heritage conservation in England, Wales and Northern Ireland. In Scotland, there is a separate and ...

). National Trust website
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References

Hill, Mary Portraits of women 1638 paintings Collection of the Tate galleries {{17C-painting-stub