Frances Talbot, Countess of Morley (1782-1857)
James Sant, CVO, RA (Croydon 1820 – London 1916)
Category
Art / Oil paintings
Date
circa 1852
Materials
Oil on canvas
Measurements
847 x 720 mm (33 1/3 x 28 1/3 in)
Order this imageCollection
Saltram, Devon
NT 872271
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
Oil painting on canvas, Frances Talbot, Countess of Morley (1782 - 1857) by James Sant, CVO, RA (Croydon 1820 - London 1916), circa 1852. A three-quarter-length portrait of Frances Talbot, as an elderly woman, some time after the death of her husband the 1st Earl of Morley, seated wearing a dull purple dress and lace cap, holding a book. An easel sits on the table beside her referring to her occupation as an artist, many watercolours are still part of the collection at Saltram.
Provenance
Painted for Frances Braham, Countess Waldegrave (1821 - 1879), circa 1852, and hung at Strawberry Hill until posthumous sale at Christie's, 10 February 1900; in Blue Bow Room at Saltram, 1902; given to the National Trust as part of the endowment by Montagu Brownlow Parker, 5th Earl of Morley (1878 - 1962).
Credit line
Saltram, The Morley Collection (The National Trust)
Makers and roles
James Sant, CVO, RA (Croydon 1820 – London 1916), artist
References
Conroy, Rachel, Women Artists and Designers at the National Trust, 2025, pp. 100-103