We have always known that copies exist of some of the Fanshawe portraits held by Valence House. For example, our half-length portrait of Thomas, 1st Viscount Fanshawe (1596-1665) is a smaller version of a portrait held by the Fanshawe family. However, the sale in 2016 of a bust length portrait of a women identified as Elizabeth Cockayne, which was identical to the female sitter in one of our double portraits, prompted us to question how many copies exist of our Fanshawe portraits.

In 2016 a painting identified as Elizabeth Cockayne (1609-1668), wife of Thomas, 1st Viscount Fanshawe was sold at auction. However, the painting style and clothing depicted suggested that it was painted too late for the portrait to show Elizabeth Cockayne.

Interestingly, this painting was almost identical to the female sitter in a small double portrait held by Valence House Museum of Sir Thomas Fanshawe of Jenkins (1628-1705) and his second wife Elizabeth (1641-1729), who was the daughter of Elizabeth Cockayne and 1st Viscount Fanshawe.

A visit in 2013 to Melbourne Hall, Derbyshire (ancestral home of the Coke family) had revealed that this double portrait was, in fact, a copy of a much larger double portrait by Sir Peter Lely. The Fanshawe family are connected with the Coke’s via the 1695 marriage of Mary Coke to John of Parsloes, who was the nephew of Sir Thomas Fanshawe of Jenkins.

Driven by these findings, the Valence House Museum Curator began a research fellowship with the Understanding British Portraits Network to investigate these copies: why they were being made and how the Fanshawe family were using them.

Painting portraits was a popular but expensive business and was generally reserved for the higher ranks of society. They were painted to mark special occasions, such as marriages and knighthoods, and acted as an object of remembrance.

Portrait copying was very common during the 17th and 18th centuries. People would commission copies to give as gifts to friends and family or, if they had more than one property, so they had a copy to hang in each of their homes.

It was also important to show your allegiance to the celebrities of the day – the king and queen or state dignitaries – and portraits of these people were mass produced by artists of varying skill and sold ‘off the shelf’.

The Fanshawe family reached the peak of their influence during the English Civil War, as Royalists who were instrumental in bringing King Charles II to the throne. This period marks the point at which the family were commissioning the most portraits. They celebrated their rise to power by hiring the leading artists to take their likeness, and had copies made to ensure that everyone recognised their new-found status.

Studio copies are made by the same artist, at the same time. In this situation it is often difficult to identify the original, or prime, version. However, portraits were not valued in this way: it was important to have a portrait of a person, it was less significant for it to be by the original artist. 

One such example of this is the portrait of Sir Richard (1608-1666) by William Dobson. There exists in a private collection an almost identical copy that is said to have been commissioned as a gift for Sir Edward Nicholas (1593-1669), Secretary of State for King Charles II.

Mary Coke (1675-1713) was from a prosperous Derbyshire family. Her portrait was probably painted to mark her marriage in 1695 to John Fanshawe (1662-1699) of Parsloes. Two versions were commissioned – one to hang at Parsloes, the other to hang at the Coke family home of Melbourne Hall.

Another contemporary version of this portrait, dating from the same period, also exists and is currently owned by the Government Art Collection (G.A.C.).

Contemporary replicas are made within the same period of time as the original, but by a different artist. These demonstrate how the identity of the artist was of less importance than the identity of the sitter.

The surviving Fanshawe collection seems to contain many contemporary replicas. At least two other versions of Thomas (1533-1601) by Marcus Gheeraerts II are known to survive. Their artists are unknown, and each painting has slight differences; in the placement of the inscription and how much of the chair back is visible. It is unknown who commissioned these copies.

Although donated to Valence House as Henry Fanshawe (1506-1568) the portrait is actually a bust-length replica of a portrait of Thomas Egerton, 1st Viscount Brackley held by the National Portrait Gallery. Brackley was one of the leading figures at the court of Elizabeth I when Thomas Fanshawe (1533-1601) was serving as Remembrancer. It’s possible that Thomas acquired a copy of a portrait of Brackley to pay homage to a man who was his social superior.

Over the generations, the Fanshawe collection was broken up as the portraits passed to different members of the family. When Thomas Lewis Fanshawe died in 1858 his portrait collection at Parsloes Manor House was divided between his four children. A number of copies made during this period survive. It is possible that family members commissioned copies of the portraits that they were fond of but no longer had access to.

Sarah, Viscountess Fanshawe (1642-1717) was a renowned beauty of her day, but the rather poor 19th century copy held by Valence House Museum does little to prove this. Another, finer version by the Circle of Mary Beale is likely to also be a studio copy or contemporary version of a now lost original.

The portrait of Richard Fanshawe junior (1648-1659) is a study of a larger double portrait by Sir Peter Lely, that depicts him with his father. It has been suggested that Richard Jr. was added to the painting after its completion, following his death at the age of 11. Someone was clearly so taken by this poignant image that they had only this small part of the larger portrait copied – a lasting tribute to a life cut short.

It is clear from the number of copies that survive that the Fanshawe family were prolific copiers of their portraits. However, this project has left us with more questions that need to be answered: What other artworks were the family collecting?
Did their collection reflect those of other leading families of the day?
Were they collecting other artworks such as landscapes, sculptures, etc? Which of the Valence portraits hung at Parsloes Manor House?
How many of these were sold in 1918 when Parsloes Manor House was sold for demolition? Who owned the Valence portraits?