Portrait of a Lady, Called Elizabeth, Lady Tanfield
- Artist: Unknown artist, Britain
- Date: 1615
- Medium: Oil paint on canvas
- Dimensions: support: 2212 x 1370 mm
- Museum: Tate Britain
- Collection record: Tate Britain website
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About this artwork
This is the “Portrait of a Lady, Called Elizabeth, Lady Tanfield,” painted in 1615 by an unknown British artist. The work is an oil on canvas measuring roughly 221 cm by 137 cm, a substantial size for a portrait of the time. The sitter is thought to be Elizabeth Tanfield (1585/6–1639), a remarkable woman of the early 17th century. She was a poet, playwright, translator and historian, and is credited as the first woman in England to write and publish an original play. Her life was as dramatic as the scene on the canvas.
In the painting Tanfield is shown in a deep‑cut green dress embroidered with silver, trimmed with yellow lace, and a dark red cloak over her left shoulder. She lifts a transparent Irish mantle as if shielding herself from the sun, and wears a wreath of heart‑ease or pansies in her hair. Behind her, a peach tree and a small architectural detail frame a landscape that feels allegorical. These elements—flowers, the peach tree, the shawl—suggest a symbolic programme that has since been lost to time. The portrait’s composition hints at her status as a lady of the court, possibly dressed for a masque, a popular entertainment of the era.
See it in person
Portrait of a Lady, Called Elizabeth, Lady Tanfield is in the collection of Tate Britain on Millbank, London — free to enter. Point your phone at any artwork there and audioguide.london plays a free audio guide in six languages — no app download needed.
