William Feilding, 1st Earl of Denbigh (c1592-1643)

Painted by Sir Anthony Van Dyck. Now in the collections of the National Gallery London

Willaim Feilding was married to Susan sister of George Villiers, 1st Duke of Buckingham and court favourite of Charles 1. Their daughter Mary Feilding was married at the age of 9 to the 15 year old James 3rd Marquis. later 1st Duke of Hamilton.

In 1622 he was created Master of the Great Wardrobe and 1st Earl of Denbigh. His son Basil was appointed Extraordinary Ambassador to Venice in September 1634 and advised and negotiated the purchase of Hamilton's important collection of Venetian paintings.

The painting was probably commissioned after Denbigh's return from Persia and India on August 1633 and is considered one of Van Dyck's finest portrait paintings. The young Indian boy, referred to in another inventory as 'Jacke', points to a Green winged Macao. The Earl is wearing an exotic anglo indian dress based on the Indian "paijama". This painting, which Denbigh gave to the 3rd Marquis, has been described in the past as 'The Earl of Denbigh with a Blackamoor', and the young Indian boy's name has been read as Jacko. However, it is actually 'Jacke', the seventeenth-century letter 'e' in secretary hand looking rather like an 'o' to the casual reader. Denbigh seems to have shared his son-in-law's interest in paintings, for he is noted in the Hamilton Archives as having given a winter landscape to the 3rd Marquis of Hamilton, and left him a legacy of some paintings.
Fighting for the Royalist cause near Birmingham, Denbigh was killed in the Civil War in 1643.

The painting is listed in the following inventories:
Hamilton Inventory M4/20 Entry 219
Hamilton Inventory M4/21 - 'The twenty sixt case '
Hamilton Inventory M4/22/ - 'An Inventory of the Pictures that are Rolled [Up] This is 26 Case'
Hamilton Inventory M12/1 Page 4 Line 25 - 'In the high dining room'
Hamilton Inventory 7 June 1759 - M4/48 Page 1
1850s Inventory Volume 1228
1876 Inventory Page 82
1919 Sale: Paintings illustrated Page 21 Cat 72