Portrait of Theodore Turquet de Mayerne (1573-1655)

ArtistAttributed to Peter Paul Rubens Flemish, b. 1577, Siegen Westphalia; d. 1640, Antwerp

Datecirca 1630–1631

MediumOil on canvas

Dimensions55 5/8 x 42 7/8 in. (141.3 x 108.9 cm)
Frame: 70 x 59 1/2 in. (177.8 x 151.1 cm)

ClassificationsPaintings

Credit LinePurchased with funds from the State of North Carolina

Object number52.9.106

On View

Not on view

ProvenanceCreated Antwerp, Flanders [present day Belgium], ca. 1630–1630. Possibly Dr. Theodore Turquet de Mayerne (1573–1655), London, by March 1631. Dr. Richard Mead (1673–1754), London; [his sale, Abraham Langford, London, March 20–22, 1754, no. 40, as Sir Theodore Mayerne by Rubens]; Ralph Verney (1714–1791), 2nd Earl Verney, and Mr. Arundel (possibly Charles Howard [1720–1786], 10th Duke of Norfolk). [1] William Ponsonby (1704– 1793), 2nd Earl of Bessborough, Bessborough House, Roehampton, London; [his sale, Christie’s, London, February 7, 1801, no. 88, as Portrait of Sir Theodore Mayerne, by Rubens]; bought by Henry Walton for William Petty Fitzmaurice (1737–1805), 1st Marquess of Lansdowne, Bowood Park, Wiltshire, England and Lansdowne House, London; [his sale, Peter Coxe, Burrell and Foster, London, February 25, 1806, no. 28, as Portrait of Sir Theodore Mayne, by Rubens, bought in?]; [second Lansdowne sale, Peter Coxe, Burrell and Foster, London, March 19, 1806, no. 47, as Portrait of Sir Theodore Mayne, by Rubens]; John Hoppner, R.A. (1758–1810), London; [his sale, Christie’s, London, May 19, 1810, no. 124, as Portrait of Sir Theodore Mayerne, by Rubens]; Frederick Ponsonby (1758–1844), 3 rd Earl of Bessborough, Cavendish Square, London; [his sale, Christie & Manson, London, April 1, 1848, no. 77, as Sir Theodore Mayerne, by Rubens] [2]. Andrew Rutherfurd, (1791–1854), Lord Rutherfurd, PC, FRSE, Lauriston Castle, Edinburgh; [3] [his sale, T. Nisbet, Edinburgh, April 9, 1855, no. 154, as Portrait of Sir Theodore Mayerne, by Rubens]. Major William Lindsay Mercer (1858–1926), Huntingtower House, Perth, Scotland; [4] to his wife, Ellen Mercer; [Mercer sale, Thomas Love & Sons, Perth, June 5–7, 1951, no. 403]; [David M. Koetser Gallery, London]; sold to NCMA, 1952.

[1] An annotated version of the sale catalogue in the Getty Research Institute lists the buyers as “Mr. Verney Mr. Arundel”. Starting in the 17th century the Earldom of Arundel has been held by the Dukes of Norfolk.
[2] One annotated version of the 1848 sale catalogue lists a buyer for the painting as “Ly[Lady?] Ih. Bd” but this inscription has not yet been deciphered. The work may have been bought in as the later Bessborough sale (Christie’s, London,July 10–11, 1850), included a portrait of Mayerne: lot 146c (unknown artist). It is unlikely, though possible, that the work would have lost its attribution to Rubens only two years later, having remained in the same collection. The Getty Provenance Index notes that many lots had been bought in at the Bessborough sales of 1801 and 1848.
3] Also frequently spelled Rutherford.
[4] It’s possible that the work was purchased in 1855 by W.L. Mercer’s father, Major General William Drummond Mercer (1796–1871), and then passed from father to son. This would account for the gap between W.L. Mercer’s birth date of 1858 and the Rutherfurd sale date of 1855. Evidence of a direct transfer between the Rutherfurd and Mercer collections has not yet been found but, given that both collections were located near each other in Scotland, this is highly likely.

Published References“A catalogue of pictures, consisting of portraits, landscapes, sea-pieces, architecture, flowers, fruits, animals, histories, of the late Richard Mead, M.D.” (auction catalogue) (London: Abraham Langford, March 20–22, 1754), lot 40, as Sir Theodore Mayerne by Rubens. “A catalogue of the well known valuable and truly capital collection of pictures…formed by the late Earl of Besborough” (auction catalogue) (London: Christie’s, February 5-7, 1801), lot 88, as Portrait of Sir Theodore Mayerne, by Rubens (sold February 7). “The catalogue of a valuable collection of capital paintings…the property of the late most noble the Marquis of Lansdowne” (auction catalogue) (London: Peter Coxe, Burrell and Foster, February 25, 1806), lot 28, as Portrait of Sir Theodore Mayne, by Rubens. “The catalogue of all that well-known valuable collection of capital paintings, the property of the late most noble the Marquis of Lansdowne” (auction catalogue) (second Lansdowne sale, London: Peter Coxe, Burrell and Foster, March 19-20, 1806), lot 47, as Portrait of Sir Theodore Mayne, by Rubens (sold March 19). “The valuable and extensive collection…of the late John Hoppner, Esp., R.A….viz. The original Portrait of Sir Theo. Mayern, by Rubens, from the Lansdown Collection” (auction catalogue) (London: Christie’s, May 18-19, 1810), lot 124, as Portrait of Sir Theodore Mayerne, by Rubens (sold May 19). John A. Smith, A Catalogue Raisonné of the Works of the Most Eminent Dutch, Flemish and French Painters, Vol. 2 (London: Smith and Son, 1830), cat. no. 727. Catalogue of the collection of “the late Right Hon. Frederick Earl of Bessborough, And removed from the Family Residence in Cavendish Square” (auction catalogue) (London: Christie & Manson, April 1, 1848), lot 77, as Sir Theodore Mayerne, by Rubens]. “Catalogue of the splendid service of silver plate…[and] pictures by ancient and modern masters, including the celebrated portrait of Sir Thomas Mayerne by Rubens…the whole being the genuine property of the late Right Hon. Lord Rutherfurd” (auction catalogue) (Edinburgh: T. Nisbet, April 7-10, 1855), lot 154, as Portrait of Sir Theodore Mayerne, by Rubens (sold April 9). George Redford, Art Sales: A History of Sales of Pictures and Other Works of Art. With Notices of the Collections Sold, Names of Owners, Titles of Pictures, Prices and Purchasers (London: Bradbury, Agnew & Co. 1888), vol. 2, 321, as Portrait, Sir Theodore Mayerne, seated, near a statue, by Rubens. Max Rooses, L'oeuvre de P. P. Rubens, Vol. 4 (Antwerp: Jos. Maes,1890), no. 993. “Household furniture, furnishings etc. from Huntingtower House” (auction catalogue) (Perth, Scotland: Thomas Love & Sons, June 5-7, 1951), lot 403. Erik Larsen, P. P. Rubens (Antwerp: De Sikkel, 1952), no. 85a, illus. 120a. (Measurements given don't coincide with ours.) W. R. Valentiner, Catalogue of Paintings: Including Three Sets of Tapestries (Raleigh: North Carolina Museum of Art, 1956), no. 128, illus. (b-w). Art News 55, no. 2 (April 1956), 58 (advertisement illus.). David Piper, Catalogue of Seventeenth-Century Portraits in the National Portrait Gallery, 1625-1714 (Cambridge, Published for the Trustees of the National Portrait Gallery, at the University Press, 1963), 229. North Carolina Architect, 20th Anniversary North Carolina Museum of Art 1947-1967 (Raleigh, NC: The North Carolina Chapter of the American Institute of Architects, 1967) 43. Artwork included without mention in writing. Oliver Millar, The Age of Charles I: Painting in England 1620-1649 (London: The Tate Gallery, 1972), no. 42, illus. Gregory Martin, “The Age of Charles I at the Tate,” Current and Forthcoming Exhibitions, The Burlington Magazine 215, no. 838 (January 1973), 59. Charles W. Stanford, Masterpieces in the North Carolina Museum of Art (Raleigh: North Carolina Museum of Art, 1972), no. 16, illus. (b-w) 35. Mocksville, NC: Davis County Enterprise Record (May 26, 1977). Lynn Wogan, Raleigh: The Raleigh Times (May 26, 1977). Fayetteville, NC: Times (May 27, 1977). Chapel Hill, NC: Chapel Hill Newspaper (May 29, 1977). Durham, NC: Herald (May 29, 1977). Goldsboro, NC: New Argus (May 29, 1977). Johanna Seltz, Raleigh: The News and Observer (May 29, 1977). The Carolinian Shopper (May 31, 1977). Marion, NC: McDowell News (June 3, 1977). Melissa Clement, Fayetteville, NC: The Fayetteville Observer (June 8, 1977). Norman Pendergraft, Durham, NC: The Durham Sun (June 8, 1977). Therese M. Southgate, MD, "Dr. Theodore de Mayerne," JAMA 245, no. 5 (February 6, 1981), 427, illus. cover. Malcolm Rogers, William Dobson 1611-1646 (London: National Portrait Gallery, 1983), illus. 10, fig. 2. Erik Larsen, Seventeenth-Century Flemish Painting (Freren, Germany: Luca Verlag, 1985), 135. John Rupert Martin, "Portraits of Doctors by Rembrandt and Rubens," Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society 130, no. 1 (1986), 10, illus. 18, fig. 7. G. E. Ehrlich, MD, "Rheumatology in the 17th Century," Art, History and Antiquity of Rheumatic Diseases, Thierry Appelbloom, ed. (Brussels: Elsevier, 1987), 80, 81, illus. fig. 81. Michael Jaffé, Catalogo Completo Rubens, transl. by German Mullazani (Milan: Rizzoli, 1989), illus. fig. 991 (p. 389 lists illus. # 493, 991, 1098, 1128, 1129, 1382). David Howarth, ed., Art and Patronage in the Caroline Courts (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1993), 272, illus. fig. 76. Hugh Trevor-Roper, "Mayerne and His Manuscript," note: Trevor-Roper in fn. 8, p. 289 mentions his biography on Mayerne. See also "Van Dyck and George Gage" by Susan Barnes, former chief curator at NCMA. Jo Kirby, "The Painter's Trade in the Seventeenth Century," in National Gallery Technical Bulletin, vol. 20 (London: National Gallery of Art, 1999), mentioned and illus. (b-w), 11. Donald C. Fels, Jr., Lost Secrets of Flemish Painting (Hillsville, VA: Alchemist, Inc., 2001), illus. (color) cover. Eleanor H. Gustafson, "Museum accessions," Antiques (April 2004), mentioned 30. Hugh Trevor-Roper, Europe's Physician: The Various Life of Sir Theodore de Mayerne (New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 2006), illus. (b-w) pl. 1 (facing p. 212) and detail (color) front cover. Dennis P. Weller, Seventeenth-Century Dutch and Flemish Paintings [Systematic Catalogue of the Collection] (Raleigh: North Carolina Museum of Art, 2009), cat. no. 63, illus. (color) 303. Gregory Martin, Rubens in London: Art and Diplomacy (London: Harvey Miller Publishers, 2011), mentioned 94-95, illus. (b-w) 94, fig. 42.

Exhibition HistoryLondon, England, The Tate Gallery, “The Age of Charles I,” November 15, 1972-January 14, 1973, cat. no. 42, illus. Raleigh, NC, North Carolina Museum of Art, “Prince Henry and His Times,” May 29-July 3, 1977, cat. no. 3. Raleigh, NC, North Carolina Museum of Art, Mary Duke Biddle Education Gallery, “Dutch Art in the Age of Rembrandt,” October 24, 1986-February 15, 1987. (Not part of the exhibition, but on view in conjunction with it). Durham, NC, Duke University Museum of Art, “Ten Dutch and Flemish Paintings,” October 1995-May 1996.

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