Selina Louisa Bridgeman, Countess of Bradford. 1876. Oil on canvas. 28 x 211/8 inches (71.2 x 53.4 cm). Collection of Weston Park, Weston-under-Lizard, Staffordshire. Click on image to enlarge it.
Selina Louisa Weld-Forester (1819-1894) was the daughter of Cecil Weld-Forester MP, 1st Baron Forester. In 1844 she married Orlando Bridgeman, 3rd Earl of Bradford, a British courtier and Conservative politician. From 1871 the family resided at Weston Park, Weston-under-Lizard, Staffordshire. She had been previously painted as a young woman by Thomas Lawrence and then later by Sir Francis Grant in 1840. She was a close friend and correspondent of Benjamin Disraeli and, according to Pearson, she was noted for "intelligence, gaiety and sympathy" (243).
This work was exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1879, no. 808. This is a conventional rather than an “Aesthetic Movement” portrait. Selina was fifty-seven when this portrait was painted and therefore unlikely to have advanced artistic tastes, which probably determined how Clifford chose to portray her. The countess is shown wearing a white dress with upper puffed full sleeves and with a double lace bertha forming a vee décolletage. She wears a lace neckband set with dark blue stones, likely sapphires, surrounded by diamonds. Other jewellery includes a floral bodice ornament of a yellow rose held in place by a diamond broach. The background to the portrait is a simple landscape, likely of Weston Park, the family’s country residence.
Bibliography
Pearson, Hesketh. Dizzy: The Life And Nature of Benjamin Disraeli. London: Methuen, 1951
Last modified 5 February 2023