DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.68073#0446
420
OLD WORLD MASTERS
ELIZA FARREN, COUNTESS OF DERBY.
Sir Thomas Lawrence Collection of
{1769-1830). Mr. J. P. Morgan.
Lawrence was only a young man of twenty-one when he sent to the
Royal Academy Exhibition of 1790 this portrait of Miss Farren, which
was catalogued as The Portrait of an Actress.
The picture, oils on canvas (80 x 57 inches), shows the graceful
young woman walking in a beautiful English park with a blue sky
overhead, and who has paused for a moment. She wears an ivory-
white, satin cloak trimmed with brown fur over a soft white muslin
gown. Her gloved left hand is holding a large muff on which is a blue
bow.
The picture was very much criticized. On hearing many adverse
opinions, Miss Farren wrote to Lawrence:
“One says it is so thin in the figure that you might blow it away;
another that it looks broke off in the middle; in short, you must make
it a little fatter at all events diminish the bend you are so attached to,
even if it makes the picture look ill, for the owner of it is quite dis-
tressed about it at present. I am shocked to tease you and dare say
you wish me and the portrait in the fire; but as it was impossible to
appease the cries of friends, I must beg you to excuse me.” The
owner Miss Farren refers to was most probably Lord Derby.
At the death of Eliza, Countess of Derby, the portrait became the
property of her daughter, Mary Margaret, wife of Thomas, second
Earl of Wilton. From her descendant, Lord Wilton, the picture
passed into the Collection of Mr. Ludwig Neumann of Manchester,
and thence into possession of Mr. J. Pierpont Morgan, from whom
it was inherited by his son.
This picture is very well known by the famous engraving by Barto-
lozzi, published in 1792, and re-issued in colors in 1797. On the death
of Lady Derby in March, 1797, the Earl of Derby married, two months
later, the subject of this portrait, to whom he had long been attentive.
In the Farington Diary, under date of October 15, 1797, we read:
“Miss Farren (the actress afterwards Lady Derby) was brides-
OLD WORLD MASTERS
ELIZA FARREN, COUNTESS OF DERBY.
Sir Thomas Lawrence Collection of
{1769-1830). Mr. J. P. Morgan.
Lawrence was only a young man of twenty-one when he sent to the
Royal Academy Exhibition of 1790 this portrait of Miss Farren, which
was catalogued as The Portrait of an Actress.
The picture, oils on canvas (80 x 57 inches), shows the graceful
young woman walking in a beautiful English park with a blue sky
overhead, and who has paused for a moment. She wears an ivory-
white, satin cloak trimmed with brown fur over a soft white muslin
gown. Her gloved left hand is holding a large muff on which is a blue
bow.
The picture was very much criticized. On hearing many adverse
opinions, Miss Farren wrote to Lawrence:
“One says it is so thin in the figure that you might blow it away;
another that it looks broke off in the middle; in short, you must make
it a little fatter at all events diminish the bend you are so attached to,
even if it makes the picture look ill, for the owner of it is quite dis-
tressed about it at present. I am shocked to tease you and dare say
you wish me and the portrait in the fire; but as it was impossible to
appease the cries of friends, I must beg you to excuse me.” The
owner Miss Farren refers to was most probably Lord Derby.
At the death of Eliza, Countess of Derby, the portrait became the
property of her daughter, Mary Margaret, wife of Thomas, second
Earl of Wilton. From her descendant, Lord Wilton, the picture
passed into the Collection of Mr. Ludwig Neumann of Manchester,
and thence into possession of Mr. J. Pierpont Morgan, from whom
it was inherited by his son.
This picture is very well known by the famous engraving by Barto-
lozzi, published in 1792, and re-issued in colors in 1797. On the death
of Lady Derby in March, 1797, the Earl of Derby married, two months
later, the subject of this portrait, to whom he had long been attentive.
In the Farington Diary, under date of October 15, 1797, we read:
“Miss Farren (the actress afterwards Lady Derby) was brides-