Portrait of Anna Theresa, Countess of Shrewsbury. 1875. Watercolour on paper. 23½ x 15½ inches (60 x 40 cm). Collection of Ingestre Hall Residential Art Centre, near Stafford, Staffordshire, accession no. PCF13. Click on image to enlarge it.
Anna Theresa Chetwynd-Talbot (1836-1912), Countess of Shrewsbury, was the eldest daughter of Captain Richard Howe Cockerell R.N. Her grandfather was the well-known architect Samuel Pepys Cockerell. She usually went by her middle name Theresa. After the death of her father in 1839 her mother was remarried in 1841 to Archibald William Montgomerie, 13th Earl of Eglinton and 1st Earl of Winton. In 1855 Anna Theresa married Charles Chetwynd-Talbot the future 19th Earl of Shrewsbury, 19th Earl of Waterford, and 4th Earl Talbot, Chetwynd-Talbot was a Conservative politician under Disraeli.
This is very much an “Aesthetic Movement” portrait with Theresa Chetwynd-Talbot shown in profile wearing a blue silk dress with white lace trim. Instead of a jewellery necklace to offset the low cut dress she wears a complimentary lace necklace. Her lustrous dark brown hair is fashionably dressed high at the back with complicated twists and rolls. Her figure is set against a simple background of the sky and featuring the leaves and branches of climbing rose bushes. This is another of Clifford’s finest “Aesthetic Movement” profile portraits that also include his portraits of Countess Cowper and of Countess Brownlow.
Bibliography
Catalogue of Paintings, Ingrestre Hall Residential Centre. Staffordshire Technology Park Staffordshire: Imagaprint Ltd., 2013, cat. no. 24, 24.
Last modified 4 February 2023