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In about 1635 Lady Dorothy Sydney rejected a proposal of marriage from the poet Edmund Waller. He called her 'Sacharissa' in the poems he wrote to her. This composition was probably devised around the time of her marriage to Henry, 3rd Lord Spencer of Wormleighton (who was created 1st Earl of Sunderland in 1643), in 1639. She is shown as a shepherdess, carrying a crook and holding a pink rose. The rose is a traditional attribute of Venus, goddess of love. Lord Spencer was killed at the First Battle of Newbury shortly after their marriage, leaving Dorothy with two children and pregnant with a third (who was to die in infancy). The widowed countess lived at Brington, Northamptonshire, but eventually returned to live with her parents at Penshurst Place in Kent.
National Trust, Lacock Abbey, Fox Talbot Museum and Village
near Chippenham
Title
Lady Dorothy Sydney (1617–1684), Lady Spencer, Later Countess of Sunderland
Medium
oil on canvas
Measurements
H 80 x W 125.5 cm
Accession number
996358
Acquisition method
gift from Matilda Theresa Talbot (formerly Gilchrist-Clark), 1948
Work type
Painting