English school in the manner of Sir Peter Lely (1618-1680)

Oil on canvas 

Three-quarter length portrait of a lady, seated and holding a floral spray, inscribed 'C Wither of Hall Place', 117cm x 93cm and the reed and ribband giltwood frame 

In 1682 Charles Wither (1663-1697) married Dorothy Smith (daughter of Sir William Smith, 1st Baronet of Redcliff) and the couple had two sons and two daughters.  His eldest son's younger daughter, Anne, married William Beach (1718-1788), a direct ancestor of the Hicks Beach family, and her elder sister, Henrietta Maria (1714-1790) married Thynne Worsley (d. 1741) in 1726.  Lot 339 in this auction is the salver with their armorial.  This portrait appears to represent one of these two women.

Provenance:  Hicks Beach Estate.  The majority of pieces in this collection originate from Williamstrip, Coln St Aldwyn, family seat from 1788 to 2008 and thereafter Mill House, Coln St Aldwyn.  Sir Michael Hicks Beach, Bt, succeeded his father as 9th Baronet of Beverston in 1854.  He became a Conservative Member of Parliament in 1864 and served twice as Chancellor of the Exchequer, from 1885 to 1886 and again from 1895 to 1902.  In 1906 he was raised to the peerage as Viscount St Aldwyn and in 1915 became the first Earl St Aldwyn.