Early Georgian Portraits Catalogue: Suffolk

Henrietta Hobart, Countess of Suffolk (1681-1767)

‘Mrs Howard’. Daughter of Sir Henry Hobart, Bart, of Blickling, Norfolk; married (1) 1706 Charles Howard (afterwards 9th Earl of Suffolk), with whom she lived at Hanover; followed George I to England and became bedchamber woman to Princess of Wales; her house at Marble Hill, Twickenham, the resort of Pope, Arbuthnot, and Swift; admired by Lord Peterborough; much courted as mistress of George II; became Countess, 1731; retired from court, 1734; married (2) 1735 Hon. George Berkeley.

2451 Attributed to John Harris, the younger, after a painting attributed to Michael Dahl
Water colour on white card, 8 x 6 ½ in. (203 x 165 mm), laid down on a modern hinged mount; blue eyes, light grey eyebrows, light brown hair, dressed with flowers, fair com­plexion; light grey dress with coral pink trimming, matching hat; light-brown interior panelled background, lit from right.

Inscribed in pencil below the opening of the mount: Drawn by J. Harris junr, from the Original at Blickling Norfk. and along the foot of the card in another hand: Henrietta, Duchess of Suffolk, 1681-1767.

The inscription may be comparatively modern. Mrs Foskett, who distinguishes John Harris senior (d.1834) from his son (c.1792-1873) also John, gives NPG 2451 to the former, without stating reasons. [1] The son, known to Bénézit [2] only as an engraver, entered the RA schools 10 January 1812. NPG 2451 does not look like an engraver's drawing; it is much more in the manner of water colour reductions executed by G.P. Harding in the first decades of the century for collectors of historical portraits. The whole length still at the Hobart seat, Blickling, has been attributed to Dahl. The sitter is dressed in what is probably a masquerade costume of c.1715-25. The identity is traditional, the type being engraved only in 1824, but agrees reasonably well with the Jervas (seeIconography).

Condition:good.

Collections:bought from Suckling and Co, Covent Garden, 1930; previous history unknown.

Engraved:the Blickling portrait was engraved by E. Scriven, 1824 for Croker's edition of Lady Suffolk's correspondence.

Literature: A description of the Villa of Mr. Horace Walpole . . . at Strawberry Hill . . .,1784; The Works of Horatio Walpole, Earl of Orford, 1798; H. Walpole, Reminis­cences, ed. P. Toynbee, 1924.

Appearance

‘. . .of a just higth, well made, extremely fair, with the finest light brown hair; was remarkably genteel, & always well drest with taste & simplicity. Those were her personal charms, for her face was regular & agreable rather than beautifull; and those charms She retained with little diminution to her death at the age of 79 . . . her eyes & countenance showed her character, which was grave & mild.' [3]

Iconography

There is contemporary or near contemporary authority for four types. All are undated, but an approximate chronological order based on dress and apparent age would be as follows. Probably in the second decade of the century, a youthful looking half length, engraved by J. Heath for Horace Walpole's collected works, 1798, the artist and source of the original not stated. [4] The style suggests Jervas and the features agree with the next portrait, listed in the Round Bed Chamber at Strawberry Hill by 1784: 'Henrietta Hobart countess of Suffolk, sitting; a view of her house at Marble-hill, Twickenham: by Jervas. It was Mr. Pope's: lady Suffolk bought it at Mrs Martha Blount's sale, and gave it to Mr Walpole.' [5] Bought by the Earl of Buckinghamshire [6] at the Strawberry Hill sale, 21st day, 18 May 1842, lot 4, it was lent to the NPG by his descendant's executors 1953-7, NPG 3891. Mrs Martha Blount (1690-1760) was a constant companion and neighbour of the sitter. No sale catalogue is recorded, but there seems little reason to doubt the provenance. [7] The topography however presents more of a problem. Although there is a low Palladian building reminiscent of Roger Morris's design for Marble Hill, 1723-29 [8] and the river was then tidal, the background does not much resemble the Thames at Twickenham, even seen from Richmond Hill. It is necessary to account for the large bluff, and even more for the large square keep-like building with turrets at the corners. Jervas seems to have taken a good deal of licence. [9] At any rate it is not Blickling. If Marble Hill is depicted, the house was standing by c.1725, which would be a reasonable date for the painting. About this time comes the Blickling portrait discussed under NPG 2451. Fourth, Walpole saw in 1768 a miniature portrait at Adderbury, Oxfordshire, then a Buccleugh seat: it is perhaps the square miniature lent by the then Duke to the Manchester exhibition 1857. [10] Lady Suffolk also figures in Charles Philip's 'Tea Party at Lord Harrington's House', 1739, in the Paul Mellon collection. [11] The sitter, often known as Mrs Howard, may well be represented in the mezzotint by J. Faber junior so lettered after a painter I, (or J) Peters (CS 194), not now identified. The identification which relies on comparison with authentic portraits is plausible, but there are other contemporary possibilities, discussed by Chaloner Smith. A portrait stated to represent Lady Suffolk as Mary Magdalen by Jervas was formerly (1878) in the collection of the Earl of Carnarvon at Highclere Castle, Hants. [12]

Notes

1. D. Foskett, British Miniaturists, 1972, I, p.311; cp Long, p.192.
2. E. Bénézit, Dictionnaire des peintures, sculpteurs . . ., 1911.
3. Reminiscences, pp.65-66.
4. The Works . . .,1798, V, opposite p.75.
5. A Description of the Villa . . .,1784, p.80.
6. The 1st Earl was the sitter's brother.
7. There was another picture in the Round Bed Chamber from Lady Suffolk's sale, 'Henrietta duchess of Orleans, as Pallas; bought at lady Suffolk's sale'. A Description of the Villa, p.80.
8. Colvin, p.396.
9. Information kindly given by Messrs E. Croft-Murray and J. Jacob. Mr John Harris suggests the Severn may also be intended, Thomas Wright being employed on Gothic designs for Berkeley Castle in the late 1730s.
10. SSB,vol.48, p.76. No.14 Frame, Transept Gallery, British Portrait Gallery of the Manchester exhibition.
11. Exh. 'Painting in England 1700-1850', Richmond, Virginia, 1963, p.116.
12. NPG archives.