Saturday, September 3, 2016

Watercolors by the Marchioness of Waterford (1818-1891)

William Henry Egleton after John Hayter
Honourable Louisa Stuart
1839
stipple engraving
National Portrait Gallery, London

Louisa Anne Stuart, later Louisa Anne Beresford, Marchioness of Waterford (1818-1891) learned to paint watercolors as a young woman in Paris, where her father was British ambassador. The National Portrait Gallery in London, which now possesses an album of her late work, reports that art was a major lifelong interest, along with the sorts of charitable exertions enjoined by the Christian religion as practiced in her day.

Camille Silvy
Louisa Anne Beresford, Marchioness of Waterford
1861
albumen print
National Portrait Gallery, London

Louisa Anne Beresford
Women carrying sticks
1888
watercolor
National Portrait Gallery, London

Louisa Anne Beresford
Three children & a cat
1887
watercolor
National Portrait Gallery, London

Louisa Anne Beresford
Two girls
1888
watercolor
National Portrait Gallery, London

Louisa Anne Beresford
Children carrying flaming torches and singing
1887
watercolor
National Portrait Gallery, London

Louisa Anne Beresford
School children
1888
watercolor
National Portrait Gallery, London

Louisa Anne Berersford
School children
1888
watercolor
National Portrait Gallery, London

Louisa Anne Beresford
School children
1888
watercolor
National Portrait Gallery, London

Conventional Victorian philanthropy sat very comfortably with the tastes and needs of this grand lady. She rebuilt a village for the laboring people on her estates in Northumberland, and added a school. This last she decorated with murals depicting scenes from the New and Old Testaments. Compliant locals served as models. Below, a few sketches of the evenings as they were passed within the sanctuary of the great house (where tenants seldom entered).

Louisa Anne Beresford
Lady in pink, reading by lamplight
1888
watercolor
National Portrait Gallery, London

Louisa Anne Beresford
Mary Cochran & Nora Thompson at the piano
1888
National Portrait Gallery, London

Louisa Anne Beresford
Mary Cochran
1888
watercolor
National Portrait Gallery, London

Louisa Anne Beresford
Unidentified woman with ostrich fan
1887
watercolor
National Portrait Gallery, London

Louisa Anne Beresford
Unidentified woman reading
1887
watercolor
National Portrait Gallery, London

Louisa Anne Beresford
Mrs Walter Alexander (with folio) and Captain Ogle, R.N.
1888
watercolor
National Portrait Gallery, London