The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of December 18, 2025

Portrait of Lucy Russell, Countess of Bedford, née Harrington

1612

studio of Isaac Oliver

(French, c. 1565–1617)
England, 17th century
watercolor on vellum with gold and silver in original stained ivory case
Unframed: 5.3 x 4.2 cm (2 1/16 x 1 5/8 in.); Diameter of frame: 5.9 cm (2 5/16 in.)
The Edward B. Greene Collection 1949.547
Location: Not on view

Description

Although the identity of the lady is uncertain, she must have been a wealthy woman, judging by her heavy and elaborate jewelry, complete with necklace, chain, earrings, jewel-encrusted dress and a kind of aigrette in her hair. In an age when clothes were assumed to be an accurate indicator of status, it was judged essential to wear your wealth, especially when immortalized in a portrait. Oliver painted the woman's pearl earrings using Nicholas Hilliard's jewelling technique, which involved laying a raised blob of white lead paint with some shadowing to one side. This form was then crowned with a rounded touch of real silver that was burnished with, to quote Hilliard, "a pretty little tooth of some ferret or stoat or other wild little beast." This technique brought the silver to a sparkling highlight, while actual gold is used to paint the pearl's gold setting. Silver tarnishes with age, therefore, the pearl earrings now appear black.
  • Cleveland Museum of Art, and Edward Belden Greene. Portrait Miniatures ; The Edward B. Greene Collection. 1951. Reproduced: frontispiece, no. 25, p. 29 archive.org
    Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, and Detroit Institute of Arts. The World of Shakespeare, 1564-1616: An Exhibition Organized by the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts and the Detroit Institute of Arts to Commemorate the Fourth Centenary of the Birth of William Shakespeare. Richmond, Va: The Museum, 1964.PR2910 .V57 1964 Referenced: cat. no. 34, p. 30, Reproduced: p. 33
    Korkow, Cory, and Jon L. Seydl. British Portrait Miniatures: The Cleveland Museum of Art. 2013. Cat. no. 9, pp. 66-68
  • Disembodied: Portrait Minatures and their Contemporary Relatives. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (November 10, 2013-February 16, 2014).
    Intimate Images: Portrait Miniatures from Europe and America. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (March 26-October 17, 1993).
    Master Goldsmiths of the Renaissance: Their Models and Designs. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (November 2, 1982-March 20, 1983).
    The World of Shakespeare, 1564-1616. Virginia Museum of Fine Arts (organizer) (January 9-February 16, 1964).
  • {{cite web|title=Portrait of Lucy Russell, Countess of Bedford, née Harrington|url=false|author=Isaac Oliver|year=1612|access-date=18 December 2025|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}

Source URL:

https://www.clevelandart.org/art/1949.547