John William Spencer Brownlow Egerton Cust, 2nd Earl Brownlow (1842-1867)
after Sir Francis Grant PRA (Kilgraston 1803 - Melton Mowbray 1878)
Category
Art / Prints
Date
1865 (after)
Materials
Mezzotint engraving on paper in glazed giltwood frame
Measurements
1200 x 900 mm
Order this imageCollection
Erddig, Wrexham
NT 1149469
Summary
Print, mezzotint engraving. A print of John William Spencer Brownlow Egerton Cust, 2nd Earl Brownlow (1842-1867), after Sir Francis Grant PRA (Kilgraston 1803 - Melton Mowbray 1878). A mezzotint of the original full-length portrait of 1865, seated, with dog that is apparently stuffed. The sitter was the eldest son of John Hume Egerton, Viscount Alford (1812 - 1851) and Lady Marianne Margaret Compton 1817-88), daughter of the 2nd Marquess of Northampton. His original name was John William Spencer Brownlow Cust. He succeeded his grandfather as Earl Brownlow in 1853. In 1853 he changed his name to John William Spencer Brownlow Egerton and in 1863 he changed his name again to John William Spencer Brownlow Egerton-Cust. He was educated at Eton and Christ Church, Oxford. The 2nd Earl was consumptive, and regularly went south with his mother, in search of better health. Her artistic bent may also have encouraged him to become an early practitioner of photography. He and his mother patronised the working-class Christian Socialist poet, Gerald Massey (1838-1907), and provided him with a house, Ward’s Hurst, on the Ashridge Estate. He died unmarried at Mentone, to which he had gone, like so many British, for the sake of his health, in February 1867. Massey wrote a threnody, In Memory of...Earl Brownlow, which was privately printed in 1869. He was succeeded, as 3rd Earl, by his robuster younger brother Adelbert Wellington Brownlow Cust (1844-1921) who married Lady Adelaide Talbot (1844/5-1917).
Provenance
Given by Phillip Yorke III (1905-1978) along with the estate, house and contents to the National Trust in 1973.
Marks and inscriptions
In the border: 'Brownlow'
Makers and roles
after Sir Francis Grant PRA (Kilgraston 1803 - Melton Mowbray 1878), artist