Margaret Lemon

Margaret Lemon (born c. 1614) was an English musician and artist's model. She was the most painted female commoner of the seventeenth century, and she was the partner of Anthony van Dyck.

Life It is known that Lemon was English, but her date of birth can only be guessed by estimating her age in paintings of her. She is believed to have had Flemish ancestry and she was probably a courtesan when she met Anthony van Dyck after he came to work, again, in England in 1632. She was a musician who could play the viol. Her life story is recreated based on gossip rather than records.

Lemon was said to have had Endymion Porter as a guest while Van Dyck was away, but she expected Van Dyck to be faithful. Wenceslaus Hollar said that she tried to put Van Dyck's career in jeopardy when she attempted to bite off his thumb in a fit of jealousy. but Lemon continued as a model attracting attention from younger ambitious painters including Peter Lely, Samuel Cooper, Cornelis Jansen van Ceulen and Adriaen Hanneman. There is another in the Royal Collection which is kept at Hampton Court Palace. Peter Lely's painting of her, in "The Concert", is in the Courtauld Institute. Contemporary copies and engravings of Van Dyck's painting of her as Flora exist although the original is lost. The historian Susan E. James says that she was the most painted female commoner of the seventeenth century.