Hannah Louisa Clabburn. 1860. Oil on mahogany panel. 19 7/16 x 14 15/16 inches (44.8 x 34 cm). Collection of Castle Museum, Norfolk, accession no. NWHCM: 1951.235.1211. Image courtesy of Norfolk Museums Service, reproduced for purposes of non-commercial academic research.
Sandys exhibited this portrait at the Royal Academy in 1861, no. 178. Betty Elzea describes it as: "Half-length, head and body half to left, eyes turned to spectator. Maroon velvet dress with pearl buttons down front, pointed lace collar, and slashed puffed sleeves. The collar is fastened with a brooch with a cabochon stone. Behind the figure is oleander-like foliage" (153). The pose of the head and the eyes turned sharply to the right was borrowed from Old Master examples, such as Raphael's Portrait of a Young Man now in the Museo Nacional Thyssen-Bornemisza in Madrid. Hannah Louisa Blyth (1825-1878) was the wife of William Houghton Clabburn, a Norwich shawl manufacturer, who became one of Sandys's most important patrons.
According to the art critic J. M. Gray, this portrait was shown to D.G. Rossetti by a mutual friend when it was on display at the Royal Academy in 1861 "and the admiration with which it was regarded led to a close friendship" (75).
Contemporary Reviews of the Painting
F. G. Stephens in The Athenaeum praised the handling of this work: "Mrs. W Clabburn, of Thorpe, Norwich (178), by Mr. F. Sandys, a clear-featured and characteristically Scotch face, though hard in treatment, and not refined in colour, as a whole, promises great improvement on the part of the artist from its evidently careful and extremely solid handling, the bright depths of the flesh-tints, into which we can look, as artists say, the precision of drawing, and firm clear handling throughout; indeed, the last quality is carried, too far, - no bad sign for a student if he does not regard his works as perfect. The background, a mass of the leaves of a narrow-leaved shrub, is beautifully executed" (732).
Bibliography
Elzea, Betty. Frederick Sandys 1829-1904. A Catalogue Raisonné. Woodbridge, Suffolk: The Antique Collectors' Club Ltd., 2001, cat. 2.A.4, 153.
Gray, John Miller "Frederick Sandys." The Art Journal XLVI (1884): 73-78.
Hannah Louisa Clabburn, née Blyth (1824–1878). Art UK. Web. 19 July 2025.
Stephens, Frederic George. "Fine Arts. Royal Academy." The Athenaeum No. 1753 (1 June 1861): 732-33.
Created 19 July 2025