Lot Essay
Elizabeth Vassall, successively Lady Webster and Lady Holland (1771-1845), was the only child of Richard Vassall, who owned extensive estates in Jamaica. In 1786 she married Sir Geoffrey Webster, Bt. of Battle Abbey. In June 1791 Lady Webster left England for Paris. She subsequently travelled extensively, accompanied at times by her husband, briefly visiting Florence in June 1793. She returned to the city on 8 January 1794, leaving some five weeks later for Rome and Naples, but was back in Florence in June, remaining in Tuscany for over a year. Her marriage, never happy, broke down irretrievably in 1795, and Lord Holland (lot 64), whom she met on his Grand Tour in January 1794, was widely known to be her lover: they married in 1797. Lady Holland was to become one of the most forceful women of her generation, and it was due in large measure to her personality that Holland House had so central a place in political and intellectual life until her husband's death in 1840.
Lady Webster's residence in Florence must be seen against the background of the European War that resulted from the French Revolution. There were fewer English tourists than in recent decades but, as her journal demonstrates, these lived on terms of familiarity. Of the identified English sitters whose commissions establish Gauffier's claims as the last in the series of major eighteenth- century grand tour portraitists, almost all were friends of Lady Webster: Sir George Webster, her first husband (private collection); her second husband, Lord Holland (examples from Holland House and from the same source as this lot); the Countess of Bessborough, with whom he had previously been in love (examples respectively inherited from the sitter and from Holland House); Holland's travelling companion Lord Wycombe (private collection); and the latter's Wiltshire neighbours Lord and Lady Ailesbury (private collection). Unlike other portraits, which are of uniform vertical format, those of Lady Webster and Lady Bessborough are of horizontal format and may well have been intended, however loosely, as pendants. However, the list of 17 April 1796 (British Library, Add. Mss. 51637,f52) lists 'un petit portrait en pied de My Lord Holland, par Gauffier/celui de Milady Webster/celui de chevalier Webster' and makes no mention of a portrait of Lady Bessborough. Lot 64, with one of the portraits of Holland, was inherited by the sitter's son Charles Richard Fox, born in 1796 before their marriage and thus unable to succeed the peerage or entailed estates, while the other version, also signed and dated 1795 and unquestionably autograph, remained at Holland House. Far more than Fagan in his earlier life-size portrait, executed in Naples in 1793, (private collection, now on exhibition at the Tate Gallery, Grand Tour. The Lure of Italy in the Eighteenth Century, 10 Oct. 1996-5 Jan. 1997, no. 22), Gauffier captures the intelligence and charm of his sitter.
Lady Webster's residence in Florence must be seen against the background of the European War that resulted from the French Revolution. There were fewer English tourists than in recent decades but, as her journal demonstrates, these lived on terms of familiarity. Of the identified English sitters whose commissions establish Gauffier's claims as the last in the series of major eighteenth- century grand tour portraitists, almost all were friends of Lady Webster: Sir George Webster, her first husband (private collection); her second husband, Lord Holland (examples from Holland House and from the same source as this lot); the Countess of Bessborough, with whom he had previously been in love (examples respectively inherited from the sitter and from Holland House); Holland's travelling companion Lord Wycombe (private collection); and the latter's Wiltshire neighbours Lord and Lady Ailesbury (private collection). Unlike other portraits, which are of uniform vertical format, those of Lady Webster and Lady Bessborough are of horizontal format and may well have been intended, however loosely, as pendants. However, the list of 17 April 1796 (British Library, Add. Mss. 51637,f52) lists 'un petit portrait en pied de My Lord Holland, par Gauffier/celui de Milady Webster/celui de chevalier Webster' and makes no mention of a portrait of Lady Bessborough. Lot 64, with one of the portraits of Holland, was inherited by the sitter's son Charles Richard Fox, born in 1796 before their marriage and thus unable to succeed the peerage or entailed estates, while the other version, also signed and dated 1795 and unquestionably autograph, remained at Holland House. Far more than Fagan in his earlier life-size portrait, executed in Naples in 1793, (private collection, now on exhibition at the Tate Gallery, Grand Tour. The Lure of Italy in the Eighteenth Century, 10 Oct. 1996-5 Jan. 1997, no. 22), Gauffier captures the intelligence and charm of his sitter.