Ickworth House – Painting of Catherine Poley, Mrs Edward Barker

This painting is located within the collections of Ickworth House and the sitter is Catherine Poley, Mrs Edward Barker (1600-1665). It was painted at some point between 1630 and 1669 and the artwork was acquired by the National Trust in 1956 having been accepted by HM Treasury in lieu of tax. On the back of the painting it apparently states “My Ladie Harvis picter when I am dead” which I assume to mean “My Lady Harvis’s picture when I am dead”, or please keep this portrait after she died. The front states “Mrs Barker, Sister to Lady May” and I assume that’s Isabella May (1625-1686) who married Sir Thomas Hervey and it’s the Hervey family who owned Ickworth.

I rather like the formality of it all, this wasn’t a time to show joviality and excitement, instead it’s formal, rigid and stiff. And that lace wouldn’t have come cheap, might as well show that off to anyone who might see. It’s so severe that perhaps there’s an element of the Puritans about it, although the Hervey family were pro-Monarchy during the Civil war and they even raised a regiment of men to fight against the Parliamentarians.