Early Georgian Portraits Catalogue: Stapylton

Lady Stapylton (1718/19-1791) [1]

Née Anne Waller, daughter of Jane Aislabie and Edmund Waller [2] of Hall-Barn, Beaconsfield; married, 1738, Sir Miles Stapylton (1706-52), 4th Bart of Myton, Yorks.

2505 Attributed to Andrea Soldi
Oil on canvas, 49 7/8 x 39 ½ in. (1270 x 1004 mm); grey-blue eyes, medium-brown hair centre-parted with pink ribbon, a ringlet falling front of her left shoulder; dress of light blue silk with white half sleeves caught up with pearl brooch, white lace fichu and brooch, grey silk scarf draped around shoulders; in each hand a flower and, right, an urn with flowers, a tree and foliage, left; background of blue sky with low orange streaks; lit from the left.

On top bar of relining stretcher a stencil 541 A C, cuttings from the Waller heirlooms sale, 1900, and auctioneer's date in white chalk on centre bar; also NPG deposit label 2/7 19 31 / sent by Miss Randell. On the bottom bar a small 19th-century MS label reads Anne Waller. Soldi pinxit / ob 1791 wife of Sir Miles Stapylton.

NPG 2505 is neither signed nor dated but in view of the label and recent research on Soldi, the attribution is almost certainly correct. Costume and style suggest the earlier part of his English period, perhaps 1738, the year of the sitter's marriage. Vertue noted that year: 'another Italian Painter, has been in England about 2 years its said. but lately is come into reputation. haveing had Several persons of Quality and distinction sit to him for their pictures—his manner is different from others, being a Florentine. . . Soldi. by name. but the most remarkable is. that notwithstanding Mr. Vanlo has had such a run of business. this Italian from April to August has had above thirty portraits large & small begun his draperys to his portraits. well immitated Silks Sattins Velvets . . . he came to England from the voyage he had made into the Levant Turkey Constantinople &c. aged now about 35’. [3] The portrait, apparently in the family until sold, 1900, is unlikely to be later than 1744 when Soldi was imprisoned in the Fleet. [4]

Condition:varnish slightly discoloured.

Collections:received, [5] 1931, by bequest with Frederick, Prince of Wales (q.v., NPG 2501), Lady Mary Wortley Montagu (q.v., NPG 2506), and others, from Miss Lillie B. Randell; presumably in the family until Waller heirlooms sale, Christie's, 7 July 1900 (14), the sale including many portraits of the poet Edmund Waller's children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren, lots 1-16 listed as formerly at Hall-Barn, Beaconsfield, home of the sitter's father, and removed from there by H.E. Waller when the estate was sold in 1832.

Iconography

No other portraits of the sitter are recorded.

Notes

1. Burke, Extinct and Dormant Baronetcies, 1841, p.505; neither Sir Miles nor his wife appear in DNB.
2. Son of Dr Stephen Waller, second son of the poet Edmund Waller, Burke, Landed Gentry, 1898, p.1532.
3. Vertue, III, p.84.
4. Ibid, p.120.
5. Not included in her will but directed, in a memorandum to her executors, to be offered to the Gallery, correspondence NPG archives.