Costanza Mazini, Mrs William Hulton (1863-1939)
Marie Euphrosyne Spartali Stillman (Middlesex 1844 – London 1927)
Category
Art / Drawings and watercolours
Date
1880 (monogrammed and dated)
Materials
Watercolour and gouache on paper
Measurements
335 x 275 mm
Order this imageCollection
Wightwick Manor, West Midlands
NT 1287895
Summary
Watercolour and gouache, Costanza Mazini, Mrs William Hulton (1863-1939) by Maria Spartali Stillman (Middlesex 1844 – London 1927), signed with monogram, dated "80". An oval head-and-shoulder watercolour portrait of Mrs Hulton, side profile, wearing a bonnet and white scarf around shoulders held by a pink rose. Costanza Mazini married William Stokes Hulton (1852-1921), their daughter Edith Teresa Hulton married Thomas Henry Noel-Hill, 8th Baron Berwick of Attingham (1877-1947)
Full description
The technique of painting in watercolour using dense, opaque colouring rather than the usual washes of colour is characteristic of Marie Spartali's work. It was favoured by the Pre-Raphaelite artists who influenced her, notably Madox Brown whose pupil she was, and Rossetti. Her colouring was generally praised and her drawing criticised: at one point Madox Brown suggested she send her pictures to him to so that "I might overlook them and possibly find out some defects in drawings that might mar the beauties of your colouring." Costanza Mazini (1863-1939) was half-English, half-Italian. Her mother Linda was the daughter of James White, textile merchant and Liberal MP for Brighton. She married Vincenzo Mazini, one of her father's business acquaintances, in 1861. After Mazini's sudden death in 1869 Linda moved to Florence, where Costanza was brought up. In 1876 Linda Mazini married the historian Pasquale Villari. She was a friend of Lisa Stillman and her stepmother Marie. From 1878 to 1883 the Stillmans lived in Florence and from 1888 to 1896 in Rome, and both Lisa and Marie Stillman used Costanza as a model for some of their work. This portrait of her by Marie, probably done in Florence, makes an interesting comparison with Lisa Stillman's later portrait drawing Costanza Mazini, Mrs William Hulton (WIG/ D/ 66, Great Parlour). In 1886 Costanza married William Hulton, a rather unsuccessful painter of landscapes, buildings and interiors who had trained in Paris. The Hultons lived in Venice for the rest of their lives. Their circle of friends and acquaintances included Browning and Henry James, and the painters John Singer Sargent and Richard Walter Sickert.
Provenance
By descent to the sitter's daughter Teresa Hulton, Lady Berwick (1890-1972) of Attingham Park, who presented it to Wightwick 1968
Makers and roles
Marie Euphrosyne Spartali Stillman (Middlesex 1844 – London 1927), artist
References
Waterson 1980 Merlin Waterson, 'Lady Berwick, Attingham and Italy', National Trust Studies 1981, 1980 pp 43-68; ill. p.52 Marsh & Nunn 1989 Jan Marsh and Pamela Gerrish Nunn, Women Artists and the Pre-Raphaelite Movement, 1989, ill. fig. 57