Frances, Countess Waldegrave (London 1821-1879)
Frances, Countess Waldegrave (London 1821-1879)

An album of 26 topographical watercolours including views of Lauffenburg, Lucerne, Freiburg, Geneva, Bonneville Lake, Martigny and Verona

Details
Frances, Countess Waldegrave (London 1821-1879)
An album of 26 topographical watercolours including views of Lauffenburg, Lucerne, Freiburg, Geneva, Bonneville Lake, Martigny and Verona
the album inscribed 'Foreign/Sketches/1852' (on a label on the spine), the frontispiece signed and dated 'Frances Vernon Harcourt/1852' (upper right), the majority inscribed with titles and dated variously 14 August 1852 - 16 December 1852
twenty-five pencil, watercolour and bodycolour, one pencil on brown paper
9 1/8 x 12¾ in. (23.2 x 31.4 cm.); and a copy of O. Wyndham Hewett, Strawberry Fair (2)

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Lot Essay

Frances was the daughter of the singer John Braham. She married on 25 May 1839 John James Waldegrave of Navestock, Essex, who died the same year. She married on 28 September 1840 his brother, George Edward, 7th Earl Waldegrave. On the death of Lord Waldegrave on 28 September 1846, she found herself possessed of the whole of the Waldegrave estates (including residences at Strawberry Hill, Chewton, Somerset, and Dudbrook, Essex). She married for the third time on 30 September 1847 George Granville Harcourt of Nuneham and Stanton Harcourt, Oxfordshire, her senior by 36 years. On 20 January 1863 she married for the final time Chichester Samuel Parkinson Fortescue, subsequently Lord Carlingford. Her salon at Strawberry Hill or 7 Carlton Gardens, London was one of the chief meeting-places of the Liberal party leaders. Lady Waldegrave died without issue on 5 July 1879, and was buried at Chewton, where Lord Carlingford erected a monument to her memory.

Frances, Countess Waldegrave was a considerable patron of Edward Lear, through her fourth husband, Chichester Fortescue, one of Lear's closest friends.

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