Portrait of Lady Hill, née Mary Pole, wife of Sir Rowland Hill, 1st Bt., half-length, in a white and gold dress and a lace headdress, holding a book and wearing a portrait miniature on a bracelet on her wrist, with Hawkstone Hall, Shropshire in the distance beyond

Details

John Russell, R.A. (1745-1806)
Portrait of Lady Hill, née Mary Pole, wife of Sir Rowland Hill, 1^s^t Bt., half-length, in a white and gold dress and a lace headdress, holding a book and wearing a portrait miniature on a bracelet on her wrist, with Hawkstone Hall, Shropshire in the distance beyond
signed and dated 'J. Russell. p^t/1778 -' (lower left)
pastel, on paper, oval
29¼ x 24½ in. (74.3 x 62.2 cm.)

Provenance

Francis Wellesley, London, 26 May, 1922.
Biddulph.
Anonymous sale: Sotheby's, London, 9 December 1931, lot 94.
Anonymous sale: Christie's, London, 29 November 1935, lot 47 (10 gns. to Dugdale).

Literature

N. Jeffares', Dictionary of Pastellists before 1800, London, 2006, p. 455.

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Lot Essay

Hawkstone Hall was bought by Sir Rowland Hill, the first Protestant Lord Mayor of London, in 1556, and remained in the possession of the same family for three hundred and forty years. Knighted by King Henry VIII, Sir Rowland Hill, the largest landowner in Shropshire, arranged the remodelling of the hall and gardens in accordance with the preference towards neo-classical architecture and picturesque landscaping of his day. One of Sir Rowland's descendants, Lord Hill, was to become second-in-command to the Duke of Wellington at the battle of Waterloo.

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