Portrait of Selina FitzHerbert (d. 1772), half-length, in a white chemise and pink and gold embroidered mantle

Details

Angelica Kauffman (Graubünden 1741-1807 Rome)
Portrait of Selina FitzHerbert (d. 1772), half-length, in a white chemise and pink and gold embroidered mantle
oil on canvas, in a George II 'Kentian' frame
30 x 25¼ in. (76.2 x 64.1 cm.)

Literature

The Contents and amount of the Household furniture belonging to Wm.
FitzHerbert Esq. at Tissington in the County of Derby as herein after mentioned, December of 22nd 1770 - probably The Withdrawing Room - 'Miss FitzHerbert in Ditto [a guilt (sic.) frame]'
Catalogue of Pictures and Curios at Tissington Hall, 1887, by Ida, daughter of Sir William FitzHerbert, 4th Bt., as 'Portrait of Selina
'Tissington Hall. - I. Derbyshire, The Seat of Sir Hugo Meynell FitzHerbert, Bt.', Country Life, 11 March 1911, p. 342, illustrated in situ in the Drawing Room
V. Manners and G.C. Williamson, Angelica Kauffmann, R.A. Her Life and Her Work, London, 1924, p. 189.
H.A. Tipping, 'Tissington Hall', English Homes Period III - Late Tudor and Early Stuart 1558-1649, Vol. II, London, 1927, p. 194, fig. 235
Nora FitzHerbert, Tissington Hall - Pictures, 1938, 'No. 69. Drawing Room.'
G. Jackson-Stops, 'Tissington Hall, Derbyshire - I', Country Life, 15 July 1976, p. 159, fig. 5

Special notice

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Lot Essay

The sitter is the daughter of William FitzHerbert (d. 1772) and Mary (d. 1753), daughter of Littleton Poyntz Meynell, of Bradley, Derbyshire. She married Henry Gally Knight, of Langold, Notts. Kauffman also painted portraits of Selina's brother, Alleyn, later Lord St. Helens (d. 1839), a distinguished diplomatist, and her sister-in-law, Sarah Perrin, who married William FitzHerbert, later 1st Bt., in 1777. The latter was painted by Kauffman in Rome in 1784 (see Manners and Williamson, 'Memorandum of Paintings', in op. cit., p. 145). The present portrait is not mentioned in Kauffman's Memorandum, so was likely painted in London, shortly before Kauffman's return to Italy in 1781.

We are grateful to Professor Wendy Wassyng Roworth and Dr Bettina Baumgaertel for confirming the attribution on the basis of photographs.

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