Margaret Power, Countess of Blessington (1789-1849) (after Sir Thomas Lawrence)
James Godsell Middleton (1805 – London 1874)
Category
Art / Oil paintings
Date
1822 (after) - 1872 - 1873
Materials
Oil on canvas
Measurements
1092 x 889 mm (43 x 35 in)
Place of origin
England
Order this imageCollection
Hughenden, Buckinghamshire
NT 429000
Summary
Oil painting on canvas, Margaret Power, Countess of Blessington (1789-1849) by James Godsell Middleton (1805 – London 1874), after Sir Thomas Lawrence PRA (Bristol 1769 – London 1830). A half-length portrait of the second daughter of Edmund Power of Curragheen and Cleona, Co. Waterford, as a young woman, seated in white evening dress. Spray of flowers at breast, hands lightly clasped. Ring on left hand, pearls on right wrist. She marroed firstly Maurice St Leger (d. 1817) and secondly the 1st Earl of Blessington as his second wife in 1818. Lady Blessington was a novelist, beauty, friend of Byron and Disraeli, and reputed mistress of Alfred, Count D'Orsay, whose portrait (NT/HUG/P/7a,b) also hangs at Hughenden and whose stepdaughter, Lady Harriet Gardiner, he was married to. The original painting in the Wallace Collection, was painted in 1822 and exhibited at the RA (80) befiore she w ent to France and Italy between 1822 and 1830. This copy was given to Disraeli by Sir Richard Wallace in 1879.
Provenance
This copy was given to Disraeli by Sir Richard Wallace (1818-1890) in 1879; given to the National Trust with Hughenden Manor by the Disraelian Society, 1947
Credit line
Hughenden Manor, The Disraeli Collection (National Trust)
Makers and roles
James Godsell Middleton (1805 – London 1874), artist after Sir Thomas Lawrence, PRA (Bristol 1769 – London 1830), artist
References
Garlick 1989 Kenneth Garlick, Sir Thomas Lawrence. A complete catalogue of the oil paintings, Oxford, 1989, no. 112