Anne Susannah Warburton, Lady Penrhyn (1745-1816)
Henry Thomson RA (London 1773 – Portsea 1843)
Category
Art / Oil paintings
Date
circa 1805
Materials
Oil on canvas
Measurements
2365 x 1420 mm
Place of origin
England
Order this imageCollection
Penrhyn Castle, Gwynedd
NT 1421755
Summary
Oil painting on canvas, Anne Susannah Warburton, Lady Penrhyn (1745-1816) by Henry Thomson (1773-1843), circa 1805. A portrait of the daughter of General Hugh Warburton of Winnington (1695-1771) of Winnington Hall, Cheshire and wife of Richard Pennant, facing left, seated to right by a column and wearing a white turban and cashmere shawl. Companion portrait painting to NT 1421754. Anne Susannah was joint-heiress to the Penrhyn estate through her grandmother, the daughter of Sir Robert Williams. In 1765 she married Richard Pennant, later Lord Penrhyn, who leased and in 1785 eventually purchased the other half of the Penrhyn estate. She was somewhat eccentric on the subject of animals, and according to Alice Douglas-Pennant, the author of the picture catalogue of 1902, `[she] used to dress up her pet dogs in little coats and bonnets and people used to say "Look at the Miss Pennants" when she had them in the carriage.' Anne Susannah's costume reveals the influence of French foreign affairs on English women's fashions in the early nineteenth century. Her turban a la Turque was inspired by the Turkish Embassy of 1802; the ubiquitous Cashmere shawl was popularised by the Egyptian Campaign of the 1790s, and proved indispensable for its warmth over the flimsy fabrics of the 1800s.
Provenance
By descent to Hugh Napier Douglas Pennant, 4th Baron Penrhyn of Llangedai (1894 – 1949), who left Penryhn and its estates to his niece, Lady Janet Marcia Rose Pelham (1923 - 1997), who with her husband John Charles Harper, thereupon assumed the name of Douglas Pennant, and in 1951 made over the castle and part of its contents in lieu of death-duties to HM Treasury (from the estate of Hugh, 4th Baron Penrhyn (1894 – 1949), which transferred them to the National Trust for display at Penrhyn Castle, 1961.
Credit line
Penrhyn Castle, The Douglas Pennant Collection (National Trust)
Makers and roles
Henry Thomson RA (London 1773 – Portsea 1843), artist