Eliza Bridgeman O'Brien (née Willyams)

1 portrait of Eliza Bridgeman O'Brien (née Willyams)

Eliza Bridgeman O'Brien (née Willyams), by John Cox Dillman Engleheart, 1814 -NPG 1681a - © National Portrait Gallery, London

© National Portrait Gallery, London

Mid-Georgian Portraits Catalogue

Eliza Bridgeman O'Brien (née Willyams)

by John Cox Dillman Engleheart
1814
3 1/8 in. x 2 1/2 in. (79 mm x 64 mm) oval
NPG 1681a

Inscriptionback to top

Signed on the original backing paper: JCD Engleheart/fecit 1814//88 Newman/Street/London.

This portraitback to top

NPG 1681a is of interest as a signed and dated miniature by J. C. D. Engleheart, but the identity of the sitter is uncertain. A separate MS note (probably from the mid-19th century), bequeathed with NPG 1681a, reads:

'‘Bridgeman’.‘Dau: of James Willyams Esqre: of Carmanton Cornwall who married Lord James O. Brien R. N. Afterwards Marquis of Thomond & died early of decline, & without children -
This Picture by ‘Engleheart’ of ‘Newman St’ London, was painted in 1814 - & sent to my Mother Sarah Grylls on Lord Thomonds 2nd marriage./E. Dawson'

This identifies Eliza Bridgeman Willyams (d. 1802) who married 1800, as his first wife, James O’Brien (c.1768-1855), styled Lord James O’Brien from 1809 to 1846, when he succeeded as 3rd Marquess Thomond. But she died twelve years before NPG 1681a was painted, and ‘Lord Thomond’s’ second marriage took place eight years before, in Antigua in 1806. According to the donor’s sister ‘the Marchioness of Thomonde [presumably meaning Eliza Willyams] was our great-Aunt’. [1]

Footnotesback to top

1) E. Maud Dawson, letter of 7 Aug. 1912 (NPG archive); she also said the miniature had been ‘in the family since 1814, the date it was painted’ and had always been considered to be by George Engleheart, although she had come to realise it was by his nephew.

Physical descriptionback to top

Brown eyes, dark hair, wearing a dull yellow dress.

Provenanceback to top

See below; bequeathed by Ellen Mabel Dawson 1912.


This extended catalogue entry is from the out-of-print National Portrait Gallery collection catalogue: John Ingamells, National Portrait Gallery: Mid-Georgian Portraits 1760-1790, National Portrait Gallery, 2004, and is as published then. For the most up-to-date details on individual Collection works, we recommend reading the information provided in the Search the Collection results on this website in parallel with this text.

View all known portraits for John Cox Dillman Engleheart