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Lot Essay
Lady Beauclerk was the eldest daughter of Charles Spencer, 3rd Duke of Marlborough (1706-1758) and grew up at Langley Park, Buckinghamshire. Lady Di, as she was known, married Viscount Bolingbroke (1734-1787) in 1757 but divorced in 1768. Shortly afterwards she married Topham Beauclerk (1734-1787). The second marriage was also fated to be an unhappy one.
Well regarded as an illustrator, designer and artist, she practiced children's portraiture and produced designs for Wedgwood pottery, while her drawings of infant cupids and bacchantes were engraved by Francesco Bartolozzi (1727-1815). Her work was admired by Sir Joshua Reynolds (1723-1792) and Horace Walpole (1712-1797), the latter designing a hexagonal room named the Beauclerk Closet to house a collection of her drawings at Strawberry Hill, Twickenham, near London.
Well regarded as an illustrator, designer and artist, she practiced children's portraiture and produced designs for Wedgwood pottery, while her drawings of infant cupids and bacchantes were engraved by Francesco Bartolozzi (1727-1815). Her work was admired by Sir Joshua Reynolds (1723-1792) and Horace Walpole (1712-1797), the latter designing a hexagonal room named the Beauclerk Closet to house a collection of her drawings at Strawberry Hill, Twickenham, near London.