Elizabeth Ilive, Countess of Egremont (1769-1822)
Thomas Phillips, RA (Dudley 1770 – London 1845)
Category
Art / Oil paintings
Date
1797 (signed and dated)
Materials
Oil on canvas
Measurements
1350 x 1070 mm
Order this imageCollection
Petworth House and Park, West Sussex
NT 486814
Caption
In about 1786 the sixteen-year-old Elizabeth Iliffe became the principal mistress of George O’Brien Wyndham, 3rd Earl of Egremont (1751-1837) and the unofficial chatelaine of Petworth. Mrs Wyndham, as she was known before her marriage, ‘took great delight in painting’, both as an artist and as a painter. She commissioned two paintings by William Blake (both in the North Gallery), and was also an amateur scientist, who set up a private laboratory at Petworth.
Summary
Oil painting on canvas, Elizabeth Ilive, Countess of Egremont (1769-1822) by Thomas Phillips, RA (Dudley 1770 – London 1845), signed and dated, very neatly, in florid script [in the hand of the artist] in cream paint: Mrs Wyndham / TPs pinxt 1797. / Petworth. A three-quarter-length portrait, seated, profile right with her hands on an urn. She is wearing a blue silk skirt, white sleeves, brown sash and a blue and white scarf on her head. In about 1784 the fifteen-year-old Elizabeth Iliffe, or Ilive, became his principal mistress and the unofficial chatelaine of Petworth. She was the daughter of a Westminster schoolmaster, and bore Egremont seven children before their marriage in 1801. Mrs Wyndham, as she was known before her marriage, ‘took great delight in painting’, both as an artist and as a painter. The diarist Joseph Farington noted in 1798 that she planned to see the great Orléans collection of pictures then on exhibition in London following its purchase by a syndicate of English noblemen. She commissioned two paintings by William Blake (NT 486264 and NT 486270; both in the North Gallery), and was also an amateur scientist, who set up a private laboratory at Petworth.
Provenance
Not recorded at Petworth but it may be the same as PET/P/561 which was of the same sitter by the same artist and has not been traced. PET/P/561 was recorded at Petworth in 1856. Thence by descent, until the death in 1952 of the 3rd Lord Leconfield, who had given Petworth to the National Trust in 1947, and whose nephew and heir, John Wyndham, 6th Lord Leconfield and 1st Lord Egremont (1920-72) arranged for the acceptance of the major portion of the collections at Petworth in lieu of death duties (the first ever such arrangement) in 1956 by H.M.Treasury.
Marks and inscriptions
(the monogram of the artist and the date 1797 are copied on the lining canvas, where the sitter is described as Mrs Wyndham)
Makers and roles
Thomas Phillips, RA (Dudley 1770 – London 1845), artist