Willem Key

Sir Edmund Scory (d. 1632);

By whom gifted to King Charles I (1600–1649), Whitehall Palace, recorded in the inventory of 1639 drawn up by Abraham van der Doort, as hanging in the Adam and Eve Stairs Room, no. 15 (Done by W^m Kay: Item the Picture of A dutch young woeman in a Citizens habitt In a little reff Shee houlding with her left hand her goulden Cheyne girdell about her waist halfe a figure painted uppo a board In a wodden frame Given to the Kinge by Sr Edmond Scorey in a black wodden guilden frame);

Recorded in the inventory of pictures at Somerset House, London, September 1649, when valued at £4;

Sold on 23 October 1651 in the Commonwealth Sale to De Critz and others;

Recovered at the Restoration of King Charles II and restored to the Crown, Whitehall Palace (no. 9, as W^m Kay);

King James II (r. 1685–1688), Whitehall Palace, recorded in the inventory of 1688 (as no. 44, Antonio Moro);

Disappeared from the Royal Collection during the reign of King William III (r. 1689–1702);

Horace Walpole (1717–1797), Strawberry Hill, Twickenham, London, by 1760;

Thence by inheritance to George Waldegrave (1816–1846), 7th Earl Waldegrave, Strawberry Hill, Twickenham, London;

His sale, Strawberry Hill, George Robins, 18 May 1842 (nineteenth day), lot 62 (as by Antonio Mor, a Portrait of Margueritte de Valois, Duchesse de Savoie; recorded in the Long Gallery);

Where acquired by George Sutherland-Leveson-Gower (1786–1861), 2nd Duke of Sutherland, for £37.16s;

Possibly Robert Sewell (according to a fragment of a label on the reverse of the panel);

Thence possibly by inheritance to his sister, Elizabeth M. Sewell (according to an annotation on a mount in the Witt Library at the Courtauld Institute);

Mr. Sewell (possibly Dr. William Sewell) and Miss E.M. Sewell;

Anonymous sale, London, Christie's, 16 December 1911, lot 97 (as W. Key);

Where acquired by Pawsey and Payne, London, on behalf of Leonard Daneham Cunliffe (d. 1937), Juniper Hill;

Thence by inheritance to the present owner.

Twickenham, Strawberry Hill, on long term loan, 2017–2026;

Twickenham, Strawberry Hill, Lost Treasures of Strawberry Hill: Masterpieces from Horace Walpole's Collection, 20 October 2018 – 24 February 2019, hung in The Gallery.

A Book of all such the kings pictures…, Bodleian Library, Oxford, MS Ash. 1514, fol. 15: '15 / Done by Wm Kay: Item the Picture of A dutch young woeman / in a Citizens habitt In a little reff Shee houlding / with her left hand her goulden Cheyne girdell / about her waist halfe a figure painted uppo / a board In a wodden frame Given to the / Kinge by Sr Edmond Scorey in a black / wodden guilden frame', in Millar 1958–60, p. 11;

A true Inventorye of Severall Pictures now remayneinge in Somersett house in y^e Custodye of M^r Henrye. Browne. &c. appraised y^e .. Septemb^r  1649 y^t Came from white hall. & S^t James., Corsham MS, fol. 16v: 24. A Dutch womans. picture. . w^th 2 hands, by Keÿ, in Millar 1972, p. 299;

A Catalogue of the collection of pictures belonging to King James the Second: to which is added, a catalogue of the pictures and drawings in the closet of the late Queen Caroline, 1758, p. 5, no. 44 (as Antonio Moro);

H. Walpole, Catalogue of Pictures and Drawings in the Holbein-Chamber, at Strawberry-Hill, Strawberry Hill 1760, p. 7 (as Antonio More of Margaret of Valois, and as hanging in the alcove of the chamber);

O. Millar, 'Abraham van der Doort's Catalogue of the Collections of Charles I', in Walpole Society, no. 37, 1960, p. 11, no. 15 (as in the Adam and Eve Stairs Room);

O. Millar, 'The Inventories and Valuations of the King's Goods, 1649–1651', in Walpole Society, no. 43, 1972, p. 299;

L. Campbell, The early Flemish pictures in the collection of Her Majesty the Queen, London 1985, pp. xxxvi, and 66, reproduced fig. 15;

B. Coremans, De portretten van Willem Key (voor 1516–1568), unpublished M.A. Thesis, Louvain Catholic University, 2000, vol. I, p. 91. reproduced fig. 18;

K. Jonckheere, Willem Key (1516-1568): Portrait of a Humanist Painter, Turnhout 2011, pp. 84–85, no. A23, reproduced;

S. Davoli, Lost Treasures of Strawberry Hill: Masterpieces from Horace Walpole's Collection, London 2018, exh. cat., pp. 31 and 33, reproduced fig. 26.