Mary Anne, Lady Acton (1784-1873), with her Children, Elizbeth Acton, later, Lady Throckmorton (d.1850) and Sir Ferdinand Richard Edward Dalberg-Acton, 7th Baronet Acton of Aldenham (1801-1837) in Fancy Dress
Raffaele D'Auria
Category
Art / Drawings and watercolours
Date
circa 1820
Materials
Watercolour on paper
Measurements
710 x 800 mm
Order this imageCollection
Coughton Court, Warwickshire
NT 135162
Summary
Watercolour on paper, Mary Anne, Lady Acton (1784-1873) and her Children, Elizbeth Acton, later, Lady Throckmorton (d.1850) and Sir Ferdinand Richard Edward Dalberg-Acton, 7th Baronet Acton of Aldenham (1801-1837) in Fancy Dress, by Raffaelle D' Auria (Naples 1799 - c.1859). Portrait of Mary Anne, wife of Sir John Acton, with her son (both in Van Dyck dress) and daugher (in white). Seated on a terrace at Naples, with a view of terraces, olive groves and the sea in the background. Exhibition; Leamington Spa Art Gallery 1948 - 'Treasures of Warwickshire'.
Full description
Mary Anne, daughter of Joseph Acton, married Sir John Acton, 6th Bt. The boy became the 7th baronet; the daughter married Sir Robert Throckmorton, 8th Bt. This meticulously executed watercolour was unattributed when it was exhibited in 1948. It was described as being connected with the occasion of a fancy dress ball at the Tuileries, but it is, of course, Naples that provides the background to the portrait. This must be an early work by the artist, since Richard, the boy in the portrait, was born in 1801, and appears here to be still in his teens. Lady Acton and her children were painted by Robert Fagan (the artist responsible for the overdoors etc. in the hall and ballroom at Attingham), rather earlier, given the date of the exhibition of the portrait at the Royal Academy (1815, no.434). F. Capobianco, in the entry on the artist in Saur's 'Allgemeines Kunstler-Lexikon', Munich & Leipzig, vol.XXIV, 2000, p.397, s.v., says that most of his early works are lost [or, more probably, as yet unrecognised], so this is a precious survival. In Caserta, there is a portrait of 'The last six sons of Francesco I, in a music-room with piano and harp', also in watercolour, but the date not specified.
Provenance
Purchased by National Trust in 1992 through private treaty sale with NHMF aid
Makers and roles
Raffaele D'Auria, publisher British (English) School, publisher