Portrait of a Lady of the Wentworth Family (Probably Jane Cheyne)
Hans Eworth • 1563 • Art Institute of Chicago
Thomas Wentworth, 1st Baron Wentworth and de jure 6th Baron le Despencer, PC (1501 – 3 March 1551) was an English peer and courtier during the Tudor dynasty. The Wentworths were originally from Yorkshire but a branch of the family had settled in Nettlestead, Suffolk in the mid-fifteenth century, where Wentworth was born. He was the eldest son of Sir Richard Wentworth, de jure 5th Baron le Despencer of the 1387 creation, and was a nephew of Margery Wentworth, the mother of Jane Seymour.
His mother was Anne Tyrrell, the daughter of Sir James Tyrrell, the supposed murderer of the Princes in the Tower. He had two younger brothers, Philip and Richard, and five sisters, Anne, Elizabeth, Dorothy, Margery and Thomasine. Through his father he was the first cousin of Queen Jane Seymour (c. 1508 – 1537), Thomas Darcy, 1st Baron Darcy of Chiche (1506–1558) and Vice-Admiral Thomas Wyndham (1508–1554). Portraits of all four were in the Lumley Collection.
Executed in Oil on panel, measuring 110.6 × 79.5 cm (43 9/16 × 31 5/16 in.); Framed: 139.7 × 108 × 10.2 cm (55 × 42 1/2 × 4 in.), the surface rewards close looking. Hans Eworth builds the composition through layered glazes and a tightly controlled palette, letting cool shadows recede so that the warm, lit passages step forward. The brushwork shifts from the precise to the almost dissolved — a hallmark of mature Renaissance practice.
Look closely and the painting opens up. Objects you might pass over — a folded letter, a half-drawn curtain, the angle of a glance — were placed to be read. The sitter is constructed: clothes, pose, and attributes were chosen to project status, virtue, and lineage.
Today the painting is held by Art Institute of Chicago in Chicago, where it remains a touchstone for understanding Hans Eworth's contribution to Western art. It has been studied, copied, restored, and argued over for centuries — proof that great paintings keep generating new readings long after their creators have gone.
