Marmion Edward Ferrers (1813-1884): 'The squire's evening walk'
Rebecca Dulcibella Orpen (1829/30 - 1923)
Category
Art / Oil paintings
Date
1850 - 1884
Materials
Oil on panel
Measurements
546 x 368 mm (21 1/2 x 14 1/2 in)
Order this imageCollection
Baddesley Clinton, Warwickshire
NT 343167
Caption
Rebecca Orpen was a talented amateur artist who married Marmion Edward Ferrers (1813-84) of Baddesley Clinton. She was prolific, working in both oil and watercolour, and much of her work remains in the house today. She and her husband lived at Baddesley with her aunt, Lady Chatterton and her husband, Edward Heneage Dering. They became known as ‘The Quartet’, revelling in art, history and their religion. On the death of their spouses, Rebecca and Edward Dering were married.
Summary
Oil painting on panel, Marmion Edward Ferrers (1813-1884): 'The squire's evening walk', by Rebecca Dulcibella Ferrers Orpen, later Mrs Edward Dering (1830-1923), inscribed and ?dated. A full-length portrait of the artist's first husband standing on a path in front of the moat at Baddesley Clinton, turned slightly towards the left and looking in the same direction. He wears a black trilby-style hat, a yellow-brown jacket with plus fours and black stockings and shoes with silver buckles. A red cloak is thrown around his shoulders and he rests both hands on a long cane. The trunk and branches of a tree are just in view in the left foreground. Baddesley Clinton is seen the background with the bridge to the left. In the sky, patches of blue are visible through white cloud. Son of Edward Ferrers (1790-1830) and Lady Harriet Townshend (d.1845) the daughter of George Townshend, 16th Baron Ferrers of Chartley, 2nd Marquess Townshend and Earl of Leicester of Tamworth Castle; married Rebecca Dulcibella Orpen (1830-1923) as her first husband. They were joined at Baddesley Clinton by Edward Heneage Dering (1826-1892) and his wife Georgiana, Lady Chatterton (1806-1876) the widow of Sir William Chatterton (1794-1855), and the life of the four friends, known to each other as 'The Quartet' and their obsessive interest in the history of the house, is attested by the numerous paintings of them which were done by Dulcibella. After Marmion Edward's death, in 1885 she married Edward Dering, by then a widower.
Makers and roles
Rebecca Dulcibella Orpen (1829/30 - 1923), artist