"Portrait Of Lucy Gage, Signed & Dated 1748 By John Theodore Heins, Oil Painting, Hengrave Hall"
Portrait of Lucy Gage nee Knight in a White Satin Dress and Blue Wrap, Signed & Dated 1748John Theodore Heins (1697-1756)
This exquisite work formed part of the family collection of the Gage Baronets at their magnificent Tudor manor Hengrave Hall, Suffolk (which has links to George Washington). The portrait hung in the manor on the Grand Staircase as part of a carefully compiled collection over two centuries, before it and the other contents, were sold in an eight-day sale on site in 1897 containing 1914 lots, including important works by Van Dyke, Peter Lely, and Godfrey Kneller.
The subject has been depicted in a feigned oval wearing a light-coloured silk dress with lace décolletage and sleeves, an elegant purple drapery, and a feather in her hair. A simple format and muted colours were used and there was no need to include exuberant props or distractions – instead the artist relied on the utter beauty of the young sitter, which was more than adequate, to create an elegant and sophisticated image.
The sitter is Lady Lucy Gage. Born in c.1721, she was a daughter of William Knight of Kingerby (? - c.1728) and Lucy Jennings, and sister and heir of Richard Knight. On 28th February 1746, she married Sir Thomas Rookwood Gage (1719-1796) who became the 5th Baronet of Hengrave in Suffolk, and of Coldham Hall, Stanningfield, Suffolk. The Gage family were an ancient and distinguished one and claims its origins from ‘The Sire de Gaugi’ whose name is on the Roll of Battle Abbey as having fought at Hastings. Sir Thomas was a son of John Gage (1688-1728) and Elizabeth Rookwood (1684-1759), who was the sole heiress to all of her father’s estates. Elizabeth marked the occasion of the marriage by giving her son a diamond-studded buckle, earrings and a cross from her collection (valued at £422 14s 18d) for his new wife. The couple had a son, Thomas Rookwood Gage, 6th Baronet, and three daughters (Lucy, Elizabeth, Mary).
Lady Gage died on 3 September 1781 at the age of 59 and was buried at Hengrave. Her husband later married Mary, daughter of Patrick Fergus of the Island of Montserrat. He died in 1796.
The portrait is signed and dated 'Heins Fec1748' (lower left) and inscribed 'Lucy Lady Gage, da:of William Knight' (lower right).
Along with our portrait, which can be ranked as one of the best works from the artist’s oeuvre, Heins also painted her husband, Sir Thomas (both portraits are signed and dated 1748) as a ‘companion portraits’ intended to hang beside one another, with the male on the left and the female on the right as was convention for a married couple. Heins also painted Sir Thomas’s mother, Elizabeth, and it is also signed and dated 1748.
Held in a good quality carved and gilded frame which is, extraordinarily, most likely the original frame.
Hengrave Hall is located near Bury St. Edmunds in Suffolk, England. It’s occupants, the Kitson and Gage families 1525-1887 were both Roman Catholic recusants. Thomas Kitson, a London merchant and member of the Mercers Company, completed it in 1538 using the stone from the old abbeys in the neighbourhood when they were pulled down. The house is one of the last examples of a house built around an enclosed courtyard with a great hall. The chapel contains 21 lights of Flemish glass commissioned by Kitson and installed in 1538. This is the only collection of pre-reformation glass that has remained in situ in a domestic chapel anywhere in England. Also, in the Banquet Hall is a window with the coat of arms of George Washington (one of Sir Thomas Kitson's daughters married into the Washington family. Elizabeth I stayed at Hengrave 27-30 August 1578 as part of her Suffolk Progress. James II, as Duke of York, attended the wedding of William Gage and Charlotte Bond at Hengrave in 1670. The house contained an important collection of historic manuscripts, dating back to the 12th Century, comprising of papers accumulated or collected by the Kitson’s and Gage’s. They contain household accounts, which give a fascinating glimpse into domestic life in Tudor times, and include correspondence from King Henry VIII, Queen Mary and Thomas Washington, ancestor of George Washington and nephew of Thomas Kitson.
The Gage baronetcy became extinct in 1872 on the death of the 9th Baronet, Sir Edward Gage (born 1812) and following the death of his widow, Henrietta Mary, Lady Gage (1818-1887) Hengrave was left to her cousin The Hon. Cecil Augustine Browne, before its contents, including our portrait, was sold over an eight-day at auction (143 paintings alone).
John Theodore Heins (1697-1756) was a painter whose work was of an exceptionally high quality. His portraits of Anna Maria Kett nee Phillips and her husband Henry Kett, painted in 1741, are a real tour de force and evidence of his ability to portray a likeness on par with some of the foremost portrait painters in England at the time.
Heins appears to have originated in Germany but moved to the UK and settled in Norwich around 1720. From 1720 to his death in 1756, Heins built up a fine reputation as a portrait painter and painted many members of prominent Norfolk families right up to his last year. He was commissioned in 1732 to paint a portrait of the Mayor of Norwich, Francis Arnam and also the previous year's Mayor Robert Marsh. After this Heins received regular commissions to paint Mayors and other civil dignitaries. By far the majority of his sitters are residents in Norfolk and neighbouring counties Cambridgeshire and Suffolk but he may also have received commissions from the West Country, as he is considered to have painted the portrait of Mr Gerard Hartopp, Governor of Plymouth and a collection of portraits of the Enys family who lived near Penryn in Cornwall. There are many examples of his portraits in Museums.
It is believed that Heins died in Norwich 10 August, 1756, aged about 59 years. He had continued painting right up until his death. He had a wife called Abigail, a daughter and a son with the same name, John Theodore Heins Jr (1732c to 1771), who also became a portrait painter.
Provenance:
The sitter and by descent to Lord Kenmare,
His sale, the contents of Hengrave Hall, on the premises, 1897, Auctioneers Hampton & Sons (lot 504. Located on the Grand Staircase: “A pair of portraits of Sir Thomas Rokewood Gage, Lucy, Lady Gage, Heins 1748”;
The Rev Henry S Gladstone;
Christie's, London, 22 September 1978, lot 54; (various properties)
Christie’s, South Kensington, 25 November 2003, lot 13; (various properties)
Private collection, The Old House, Aspley Guise, Bedfordshire
Measurements: Height 94cm, Width 82cm framed (Height 37”, Width 32.25” framed)
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