Jennie Jerome, Lady Spencer-Churchill (1854-1921)
S. Sarong
Category
Art / Drawings and watercolours
Date
Unknown
Materials
Watercolour paint on paper
Measurements
440 x 360 x 40 mm
Order this imageCollection
Chartwell, Kent
NT 1101086
Summary
S. SARONY. Watercolour portrait of Lady Randolph Churchill, head and shoulders; wearing a star ornament in her hair and looking at the spectator over her left shoulder. In an ornate gilded frame. Formerly part of the Heirloom Collection.
Full description
It is copied from a photograph, probably by Sarony & Co. Churchill referred to the photograph in a letter to his mother of 3 August 1894: Letter from Churchill (Hotel Brittanique, Bruxelles [Brussels, Belgium] on the notepaper of 50 Grosvenor Square) to "Mamma" [Lady Randolph Churchill] describing his journey, Count [Charles] Kinsky's kindness to "Jack" [John S Churchill] and himself and his impressions of Brussels. He expresses relief at the news that [Lord Randolph Churchill] is better but concern that she is unhappy and says that he has got a photograph of her wearing a star in her hair. A letter of 1883 from Lady Randolph to Lord Randolph comments on “her mother's decision to sell a diamond star.” Napoleon & Oliver Sarony were the pre-eminent portrait photographers of the period c. 1870-90 operating on both sides of the Atlantic. In 2009/10 the National Portrait Gallery had an exhibition of their work: http://www.npg.org.uk/whatson/display/20101/the-brothers-sarony.php Martin Levy wondered whether the painting might have been produced by the Sarony workshop, rather than Sarony himself.
Makers and roles
S. Sarong, artist