Mary Morley, Countess of Derby (1667-1752)

manner of Michael Dahl (Stockholm 1656/9 – London 1743). Oil painting on canvas, Mary Morley, Countess of Derby (1667-1752), manner of Michael Dahl (Stockholm 1656 – London 1743), inscribed bottom right (in house-style); Mary Countess of Derby/daugr. & Sole Heir/of Sr. Willm. Morley/1710. A portrait of a young woman, three-quarter length, seated in a park, facing, gazing at the spectator, head inclined slightly to the left, with knees to the right. Her left arm rests on a lichen covered rock. She has pale brown hair dressed high on the head and wears a once lilac wrap-around décolleté dress revealing a white chemise. Her crimson cloak which is draped around her left shoulder and arm and held at the waist by her right hand, falls on the left over her seat. A large rock is behind her on the left and a distant landscape with and sky is revealed on the right. Only surviving daughter and sole heir of Sir William Morley by his second wife Anne Denham, daughter of the poet, Sir John Denham, K.B., and thus also his granddaughter and heiress. Married, unhappily, to James Stanley, 10th Earl of Derby (1664-1735/6) in February 1704/5. He was the son of Charles Stanley, 8th Earl of Derby and Dorothea Helena van den Kerchhove. (KIL/P/29 & L/KIL/P/47) Killerton, Devon (Accredited Museum)