The Four Elder Agar-Robartes Children
Anna Lea Merritt (Philadelphia 1844 – Hurstbourne Tarrant 1930)
Category
Art / Oil paintings
Date
1885 (signed and dated)
Materials
Oil on canvas
Measurements
1829 x 1270 mm (72 x 50 in)
Place of origin
Bodmin
Order this imageCollection
Lanhydrock, Cornwall (Accredited Museum)
On show at
Lanhydrock, Cornwall, South West, National Trust
NT 884926
Caption
The artist was fond of painting children whom she believed were less inhibited models. This is charming, informal exterior group portrait of the elder four children of Thomas 2nd Lord Robartes & 6th Viscount Clifden: The Hon. Thomas Charles (1880 - 1915) in black with his twin sister The Hon. Julia Caroline Everilda (1880 - 1969) in red dress and straw hat , The Hon. Gerald (1883 - 1966), as a toddler, and on the right, The Hon. Mary (1879 - 1946). The artist is perhaps best known for her painting Love Locked Out in Tate Britain, painted just four years later showing the back view of the nude child figure of Cupid, the god of love, trying to force open a door of a mausoleum.
Summary
Oil painting on canvas, The Four Elder Agar-Robartes Children by Anna Lea Merritt (Philadelphia 1844 – Hurstbourne Tarrant 1930) signed and dated bottom right: Anna Lea Merritt / 1885. A large upright painting showing a group of four children in a landscape. On the left are The Hon. Thomas Charles (1880 - 1915) in black with his twin sister The Hon. Julia Caroline Everilda (1880 - 1969) in red dress and straw hat and in the centre is The Hon. Gerald (1883 - 1966) as a toddler. On the right is The Hon. Mary (1879 - 1946), a fair haired girl in a blue frock carrying a basket of flowers. All four are the children of Thomas 2nd Lord Robartes & 6th Viscount Clifden.
Provenance
Given by the youngest child in the painting, Gerald, 7th Viscount Clifden (1883-1966), with the transfer of the house to the National Trust in 1953
Credit line
Lanhydrock, The Robartes Collection (The National Trust)
Marks and inscriptions
Recto: Anna Lea Merritt/1885 Recto: Frame label, centre: The Agar-Robartes Children / Thomas, Everilda, Gerald and Mary / Anna Lea Merritt - 1885
Makers and roles
Anna Lea Merritt (Philadelphia 1844 – Hurstbourne Tarrant 1930), artist