Mrs Jane Cartwright

Although unattributed in the Cartwright inventory, there seems to be no reason to doubt that this portrait was painted by Greenhill, perhaps in the mid-1660s, contemporary with his portrait of William Cartwright (DPG393). According to the registers of St Giles, Cripplegate, Cartwright married three times and the exact identity of his wives is still problematic. The sitter in DPG387 is identified as Jane Hodgson, who married a William Cartwright on 19 November 1654 at St James, Clerkenwell (a Hodgson coat of arms is recorded in the Cartwright Inventory, no.160). The woman in this picture was originally painted in a blue dress with red sleeves, with a pearl head-dress and ear-rings, pearl brooch at the corsage and a flowing veil around head. She was re-painted in mourning, probably after her death, to signify the widower?s grief.