Mary Neville & Son

This Tudor double portrait once owned by Horace Walpole has been bought by the National Portrait Gallery for £997,500: Hans Eworth's Lady Dacre (Mary Neville) and her son, Gregory Baron Dacre (1559). This is an historically vital piece of British heritage well worth acquiring at a bargain price. Artistic convention of the period reserved the left side of a double portrait for the dominant male, the right side for any female. That this convention was ignored by the artist shows what a powerful matriarch Mary was. To compensate, her son was brought forward slightly. The painting celebrates the restoration of the Dacre titles and honours, which had been forfeited when the 9th Baron Dacre - Mary's husband - was executed in 1541. Thanks to Mary's campaigning, Parliament restored the titles in 1558. The double portrait was painted a year later, when Mary was about 36 and her son around 21. Think of Mary's early life: wed by 14, a mother at 15, a widow at 18; character-building stuff! Click the title link for a larger graphic.