Edith Amelia (née Ward), Lady Wolverton as Britannia
© National Portrait Gallery, London
Edith Amelia (née Ward), Lady Wolverton as Britannia
by Lafayette
contact print on gold-toned printing-out paper, 1897
13 7/8 in. x 11 in. (354 mm x 278 mm)
Acquired from Victoria & Albert Museum, 1998
Photographs Collection
NPG x88532
Sitterback to top
- Edith Amelia (née Ward), Lady Wolverton (1872-1956), Wife of 4th Baron Wolverton; daughter of 1st Earl of Dudley. Sitter in 20 portraits.
Artistback to top
- Lafayette (Lafayette Ltd) (active 1880-1962), Photographers. Artist or producer associated with 6908 portraits.
Linked publicationsback to top
- Pepper, Terence, High Society: Photographs 1897-1914, 1998 (accompanying the exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery from 30 January to 21 June 1998), p. 22 Read entry
Lady Wolverton is portrayed as Britannia, seated in the pose shown on the British penny until 1895, in the costume she wore for the Devonshire House Ball. Her sash bears the inscription ‘Honi soit qui mal y pense’. The picture was taken in Lafayette’s studio.
Placesback to top
- Place made: United Kingdom: England, London (photographers' studio, 179, New Bond Street, London)
Subjects & Themesback to top
Events of 1897back to top
Current affairs
Queen Victoria's Diamond Jubilee is marked by a series of celebratory events, and attended by eleven colonial prime ministers following the Colonial Secretary Joseph Chamberlain's proposal that the Jubilee be made a festival of the British Empire.The Workmen's Compensation Act gives workmen a right to a limited compensation in every case of injury by accident arising from the course of employment; it is a landmark piece of legislation in employment law.
Art and science
Bram Stoker's Dracula is first published.Henry Tate of the Tate and Lyle sugar company donates his art collection to the nation, buying land and building a gallery space for it (now Tate Britain).
Physician and psychologist Havelock Ellis publishes the first volume of his Studies in the Psychology of Sex, and the English physicist John Thompson discovers the existence of the electron.
International
The burning of Benin city by Britain takes place, known also as the Punitive Exhibition of 1897. The excursion, led by Admiral Sir Harry Rawson, was a response to an attack by Benin warriors on a British delegation sent to settle a dispute over customs duties collected by British traders. During the expedition the British Admiralty destroyed much of the city's treasured art, including the Benin Bronzes, auctioning off the rest as war booty to recoup costs.Comments back to top
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