Interior of a church with a seated figure by lamplight

This picture was first recorded in the ‘Estimate of Pictures’ made in circa 1683 of the free-hanging pictures at Ham House. It was compiled for Elizabeth Maitland, Duchess of Lauderdale, 2nd Countess of Dysart (1626-1698), who had inherited the house, and the Dysart title, from her father, as the eldest of his five daughters. In the list of pictures hanging in the Green Closet were recorded two works described respectively as ‘132. A perspective by Stanewick. £6’ and ‘164. A perspective of Stanwick. £10’. Given later records of the paintings at Ham, the first of these can be identified as the present work since reference is frequnetly made to its depiction fo lamplight in subsequent lists of pictures. The painting remained in the Dysart collection at Ham, hanging in the Green Closet, where it is visible in a photograph of the room, published in 1920 (Country Life, March 1920), displayed alongside the Cathedral interior offered in the Old Masters Evening sale.