A Lunch Party at Ashridge House, 1892. Watercolour and gouache, paper collage laid on canvas, 33 ⅞ x 55 5/16 inches (86 x 140.5 cm). Private collection. Click on image to enlarge it.
The setting for this gathering is the rose garden at Ashridge House, the seat of the Earls of Brownlow, with the 3rd Earl of Brownlow and his wife the Countess Brownlow being the hosts for the party. Many leading aristocrats and influential politicians of the day were invited, the group being largely linked by marriage, friendship, and politics. No less than four Conservative MPs are portrayed and the husband of Mrs. Percy Wyndham was a leading Conservative MP as well.
Some of the figures included were members of “The Souls,” an elite social and intellectual group who reached the zenith of their prominence in the 1890s. A Lunch Party at Ashridge House depicts from left to right: John Vesey, 4th Viscount de Vesci; Colonel the Hon. Reginald Talbot; Adelaide Chetwynd-Talbot; the Hon. Mrs. R. Talbot (Margaret Jane Stuart-Wortley); Adelaide Chetwynd-Talbot, the Countess Brownlow; Miss Pamela Wyndham; the Hon. Alfred Chetwynd-Talbot, Lady Alice Gaisford, Mr. Henry Cust, the Hon. Mrs. Percy Wyndham, George Robert Charles, the 13th Earl of Pembroke; Gertrude Frances Herbert, the Countess of Pembroke; Katrine Cecilia Cowper, Countess Cowper; Admiral Hon. Walter Carpenter; Adelbert Brownlow-Cust, 3rd Earl Brownlow; Constance Kerr, 8th Marchioness of Lothian. The rather formal arrangement of the figures suggests this watercolour was primarily commissioned as a chronicle of the event more so than as a work of art per se.
Sir Reginald Talbot (1841-1929) was the third son of the 3rd Earl Talbot. He was a British Army officer who rose to the rank of Major General, a Conservative M.P., and was appointed Governor of Victoria in Australia in 1904. The Hon. Alfred Talbot (1848-1916) was his younger brother. Lady Alice May Gaisford (1836-1892) was the daughter of the 7th Marquess of Lothian and married to Thomas Gaisford. Henry John Cockayne-Cust (1861-1917) was a Unionist M.P. and for a time editor of the Pall Mall Gazette. George Robert Charles (1850–1895) was the 13th Earl of Pembroke. George Robert Charles (1850–1895), the 13th Earl of Pembroke, was a Conservative politician. Gertrude Frances Herbert (1840-1906), the Countess of Pembroke, was the daughter of Henry Chetwynd-Talbot, the 18th Earl of Shrewsbury. Katrine Cecilia Cowper (1845-1913) was the eldest daughter of William Compton, the 4th Marquess Northampton. Admiral The Hon. Walter Cecil Carpenter (1834-1904) was the second son of Henry Chetwynd-Talbot, 18th Earl of Shrewsbury. In addition to his naval career he served as an M.P. from 1859-65. Adelbert Brownlow-Cust, 3rd Earl Brownlow and Viscount Alford, was a British soldier, courtier, and Conservative politician. Constance Harriet Kerr (1836-1901) was the daughter of Henry Chetwynd-Talbot, 18th Earl of Shrewsbury, and the wife of William Kerr, 8th Marquess of Lothian.
Edward Clifford became a favourite painter for many within aristocratic circles, especially those associated with The Souls. A number of the individuals portrayed in A Lunch Party at Ashridge House would also be painted by leading artists of the day like Frederic Leighton and John Singer Sargent. Many of the leading portraitists of the time, however, such as Leighton, Watts and Burne-Jones, were unenthusiastic about staying in cold, drafty country houses whereas Clifford appears to have relished his opportunities to be a guest and associate with rich and influential aristocrats and politicians. This is somewhat hard to reconcile with his religious beliefs and his work on behalf of the poor and disadvantaged as the Honorary Evangelistic Secretary of the Church Army. Mrs. Cholmeley perhaps explains this dichotomy the best: “Edward, Clifford was gifted in many ways, but I am disposed to think his chief gift was for friendship. Not only had he more friends of all sorts and conditions in life than any person I ever met, but I never met anyone else so many persons of all sorts and conditions reckoned as their chief friend. He enjoyed and admired his friends vastly, and vastly did his friends enjoy him” (xv). Clifford became close friends with some of his aristocratic sitters, particularly Sibell Wyndham, the wife of George Wyndham. Clifford painted individual portraits of a number of the women depicted in this group portrait at Ashridge House including the Viscountess de Vesci, the Hon. Mrs. Talbot, and the Countess Brownlow, all three of whom stand close together to the left of the composition.
Bibliography
Cholmeley, Mrs. R. Edward Clifford. Cowley, Oxford: Church Army Press, 1907.
Last modified 5 February 2023