Edith Vane-Tempest-Stewart, Marchioness of Londonderry
after Beatrice Wainwright (b.Leicester fl.1908-1960)
Category
Art / Prints
Date
1937
Materials
Paper
Measurements
8.125 ins (h)6.125 ins (w)
Order this imageCollection
Shaw's Corner, Hertfordshire
NT 1274683
Summary
A coloured print of Edith Vane-Tempest-Stewart, Marchioness of Londonderry (1878-1959). 1937. This is a print after the original watercolour by Beatrice Wainwright (NT 1220357) located at Mount Stewart, Northern Ireland, the former home of Lady Londonderry (National Trust). The picture shows Edith dressed in robes for the coronation of George VI in 1937.
Full description
A coloured print of Edith Vane-Tempest-Stewart, Marchioness of Londonderry (1878-1959). 1937. This is a print after the original watercolour by Beatrice Wainwright (NT 1220357) located at Mount Stewart, Northern Ireland, the former home of Lady Londonderry (National Trust). The picture shows her in robes for the coronation of George VI in 1937. Edith Vane-Tempest-Stewart (Lady Londonderry) (1878-1959), of Mount Stewart, was a society hostess who became an ardent suffragist and political campaigner. Married to Charles Vane-Tempest-Stewart (Viscount Castlereagh, later Marquis of Londonderry), she was friends with the Shaws during the interwar years. Charlotte Shaw acted alongside Edith working on a committee for the Women’s Municipal Party, which aimed at placing women on local government bodies to promote the welfare of women and children. As Lady Londonderry, Edith became the first female magistrate in County Durham, and then in County Down. Edith gave this print to the Shaws as a gift at Christmas in 1938. A copy of the original portrait at Mount Stewart, it reveals Lady Londonderry in her coronation robes. An inscription on the frame prop reads: "From 'Sidonia' with love to you both, every good wish. Christmas 1938." This was a reference to Shaw’s pet name for Edith, as he called her “Sidonia” after the sorceress. He wrote to her in 1938: “‘THE sorceress was Sidonia – Sidonia the Sorceress; and if I may have a name for you all to myself I will have Sidonia, as you look her, every inch.’ (Shaw to Lady Londonderry, 17 December 1938, Bernard Shaw Collected Letters, vol.4, p.520). Shaw is referring here to the novel Sidonia von Bork, die Klosterhexe (1847-8) by Wilhelm Meinhold, which told the story of a 17th century trial for witchcraft. Shaw had owned a copy of the book Sidonia the Sorceress produced by William Morris’s Kelmscott Press in 1893. (Alice McEwan, 2020)
Provenance
The Shaw Collection. The house and contents were bequeathed to the National Trust by George Bernard Shaw in 1950, together with Shaw's photographic archive.
Marks and inscriptions
Frame prop inscribed: "From 'Sidonia' with love to you both, every good wish. Christmas 1938."
Makers and roles
after Beatrice Wainwright (b.Leicester fl.1908-1960), artist