Anthony Van Dyck (1599–1641) 
Lady Anne Carey, Later Viscountess Claneboye and Countess of Clanbrassil, ca. 1636
Oil on canvas
(83 1/2 x 50 1/4 in. (212.1 x 127.6 cm)

Short Label 

    The subject represented in the painting is Anne Carey, the daughter of Henry Carey, who was the Earl of Monmouth, and Martha Cranfield, the daughter of the Earl of Middlesex.

      Van Dyck, the inventor of a mode of representing his subjects in full length with fancy dresses and standing in natural landscapes, depicted Anne Carey standing near the rocks. She wears a satin dress, trimmed with pearls, and her tucked sleeve shows a white undersleeve. Her curly hair is adorned with pearls. She also has pearl earrings and necklace. Her eyes are big and brown and her lips are red. Lady Anne holds an airy dark-green scarf in her hands. The landscape is depicted in dark brown and grey colors, but the object’s dress stands out in its deep color that reminds viewers of the color of a night sea and makes the drawing alive. Van Dyck painted other members of Anne Carey family with nearly similar landscape’s background and dress.

      Henry Frick purchased this painting in 1917. The painting was admired in Europe and exhibited among a group of four Van Dyck’s portraits at the Royal Academy in London. Frick acquisitions were always remarkable and Lady Anne Carey complimented Frick’s selection.

Long Label

      Anne Carey was the eldest daughter among the ten children of Henry Carey and Martha Cranfield. Henry Carey was a second Earl of Monmouth. He spent his youth on travelling around the world and later became a notable translator from Italian and French languages. Anne’s mother was a daughter of English merchant and politician. According to a family relative, lady Anne Carey was knowledgeable and well educated woman. Besides, she was very pretty too. In 1641 miss Carey married James Hamilton, the Viscount Claneboye and the Earl of Clanbrassil. They had four children. However, James died in June of 1659 and nine years after her first husband death the Countess of Clanbrassil married Robert Maxwell, County of Down.

      Van Dyck, the master in representing aristocracy’s wealth and luxury, painted Lady Anne Carey in 1636. The woman stands near the rocks, the nature’s landscape behind her is brown and grey. Carey’s dress is outstanding detail of the painting. Its ice-blue color and satin cloth complimented the whole image and dilute dark colors in the painting. The dress represents seventeenth century Van Dyck’s style of clothes drawing. The style became an iconic throughout centuries. Many distinguished artists, including Joshua Reynolds and Thomas Gainsborough, were inspired by “Van Dyck’s dress” style and copied it to their own paintings. Lady Anne’s dress is slashed at the shoulder and trimmed with pearls. The pearls also adorn her curly hair. She wears pearl earrings and pearl necklace as well. Her eyes are big and her lips are red. Anne holds a light and airy scarf in her hands. Even if the landscape is depicted in dark colors, the object’s dress stands out in its deep color that reminds viewers of the color of a night sea and makes the drawing beautifully alive.

      Van Dyck painted some other members of Anne Carey family, including her mother Martha and aunt Frances. The portrait of Anne’s aunt is almost similar to her own. The portraits’ background landscape, the pose and the dress are nearly identical to one another. However, Carey’s individualized face shows the painter’s talent to transform an object into a symbol of aristocratic nobility. Reusing the landscape’s background in several paintings leads to suggest that it was a studio.

      Well known for his interest in collecting seventeenth century portraits of noblemen and aristocracy, Henry Clay Frick acquired the painting of Lady Anne Carey in 1719. The portrait was admired and regularly exhibited in Europe. It was among a group of four Van Dyck’s portraits, that were exhibited in 1875 at the Royal Academy. The Lady Anne Carey serves the taste of English aristocracy and reflects the image of aristocrats’ privilege in the seventeenth century. Frick owned seven other Van Dyck’s works of all periods of painter’s art. The artist’s paintings express an ideal aristocratic life that Frick was eager to see in its collection of drawings. Being among the class of amazingly rich American collectors, Henry Frick aspired to emulate English aristocratic life in his home interior.