Lady Margaret as a younger lady.
The painting is of doubtful authenticity. It is painted by Wilfred Egan after an unknown painter. Copy of an original in the National Portrait Gallery (item 1488). It is thought that Lady Margaret did not allow any portrait during her lifetime. The commentary in the National Portrait Gallery on their version of the same picture is:
1488: Unknown lady called Lady Margaret Beaufort, oil on linen laid down on panel 17.5 x 12.5 inches, 44.5 x 31.7cms by an unknown artist.
Half length to the left, hands clasped in prayer; head and grey eyes cast down; she wears a gauze under-headdress and over it an embroidered gable headdress; black barbe and brown dress with grey fur cuffs; green tapestry background; royal arms top left; lit from the front.
After purchase by Lord Powerscourt in 1883 it was examined by Scharf who pronounced it "a fabrication". By the time of its acquisition this information must have been lost sight of and Cust made much of it as a possible example of the work of a late 15th century English school. Cust's successor, Sir Charles Holmes, had his doubts and in particular suspected the coat of arms to be a later addition. In 1939 the portrait was x-radiographed under the auspices of Mr Michael Serpell, revealing that an unknown young woman had been painted over in order to sell the portrait as one of Henry VII's mother. Beneath there was a donor portrait, probably a copy, from an early 16th century Flemish altarpiece. The costume is around 1510-50 and the picture beneath is of mediocre quality.
Heraldry: Arms: France modern quartering England within a Bordure compony Argent and Azure.
The arms are the maiden arms of Lady Margaret, being the same as those used by her father, the Duke of Somerset, direct descendant of John of Gaunt through the legitimate line of Beaufort. The arms are shown on a lozenge, which is the way women have borne arms since early Tudor times and sporadically in the 15th century.
Behind the lozenge a shield with inscription (illegible) can be discerned. The background is dispersed with the portcullis badge of the Beauforts.
