Unknown Artist
This remarkable painting depicts Joan Woodward (c.1573–1623), stepdaughter of the businessman Philip Henslowe. Joan was the first wife of Edward Alleyn, an English actor and a major player in Elizabethan theatre, and the founder of Dulwich College.
This unattributed portrait was painted when she was in her mid-twenties, when Edward was at the height of his fame. Her fashionable clothes are very distinctively those of the wife of a London merchant or professional—even the copy of the testament which she holds matches her rose-embroidered gloves.
Edward kept a diary between the years of 1617 and 1622 that detailed almost every single day of his life. The diary records the couple’s life in minute detail, including what they wore, ate, and took to keep themselves healthy. It also lists his expenses, including a whalebone for Joan’s bodice.
Joan was buried in the old chapel at Dulwich with a stone inscribed: Here lyeth in Hope of Resurrection, the Body of Joane, the religious and loving wife of Edward Alleyn Esqr. Founder of this College, who departed this mortal Life the 28th of June 1623, being in the 51 year of Her Age.
See this work in high-resolution as part of Dulwich Picture Gallery’s Online Collection.
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