The Piazza of St Mark’s, Venice, with the two pillars from Acre (after Samuel Prout)
Frances Parker, Countess of Morley (Wymondham 1782 - ?Saltram 1857)
Category
Art / Drawings and watercolours
Date
1830 - 1857
Materials
Paper,watercolour paint,giltwood and glass
Measurements
250 x 194 mm
Place of origin
England
Order this imageCollection
Saltram, Devon
NT 872202
Caption
Frances Talbot, Countess of Morley, was a talented amateur artist, illustrator and novelist. A portrait of Talbot in later life depicts her surrounded by these passions – she reads a book while a picture waits to be finished, or admired, on a table easel beside her. Aged 16, Talbot was awarded a silver medal in ‘polite arts’ by the Society for the Encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce (later the Royal Society of Arts) for her painting of Raphael’s Virgin and Child. In the following years she was awarded the larger silver palette medal for a painting after Titian, and a further silver medal for a painting of a ‘Herb Girl from nature’. These subjects suggest that Talbot was experimenting with painting figures – although, as a woman, she would not have been permitted to attend life-drawing classes to develop this skill. That constraint might explain why, during the Peace of Amiens, she went to Paris to study for a few months with the artist François Gérard (1770–1837), who was celebrated for his portraits of French nobility. A large collection of Talbot’s watercolours is held at Saltram in Devon, many showing scenes of continental Europe, including examples copied from artists such as William Callow and David Roberts. Talbot’s interest in wax modelling probably began following a visit to Saltram in 1813 by coloured-wax artist Samuel Percy (1750–1820). Talbot created a number of family portraits in this medium, including at least two copies of a tender image of her stepson, Henry Villiers Parker (1806–17), sculpted in 1814 before his tragic death, aged just 11. Talbot’s obituary in The Annual Register for 1857 creates a picture of a vibrant woman of wit and good conversation, making special note of her literary and artistic work – ‘a woman of strong mind and considerable literary and artistic abilities … [she] has left behind her a numerous collection of paintings, the product of her pencil’.
Summary
Watercolour on paper, The Piazza of St Mark’s, Venice, with the two pillars from Acre (after Samuel Prout) by Frances Talbot, Countess of Morley (Wymondham 1782 - ?Saltram 1857). The Piazza of St Marks, with the campanile in the background and a pair of carved classical pillars in the foreground with figures. In a 19th century giltwood and plaster framer.
Provenance
Given to NT as part of the endowment by Montagu Brownlow Parker (1878-1962), 5th Earl of Morley.
Makers and roles
Frances Parker, Countess of Morley (Wymondham 1782 - ?Saltram 1857), artist after Samuel Prout (Plymouth 1783 - Camberwell 1852), artist
References
Conroy, Rachel, Women Artists and Designers at the National Trust, 2025, pp. 100-103