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Description: | This full-length portrait of Hon. Anne Griffin, Hon. Mrs William Whitwell (about 1695-1770) by the Italian painter Biagio Rebecca (1734/5-1808) represents the mother of Sir John Griffin Griffin, 4th Lord Howard de Walden, 1st Lord Braybrooke responsible for commissioning the thirteen ancestral portraits that ornament the Saloon at Audley End in Essex. This room, the first in a suite of five, newly arranged by Sir John Griffin Griffin is the most richly decorated, as an observer of 1819 recorded: 'The frieze, cornice, pilasters and other parts, are richly carved and gilt; and the chimney-piece contains some beautiful miniature paintings, with the arms of the Howard family'. The interior architecture of this room gracefully integrates the rooms original Elizabethan 'stuccoed ceiling ornamented with pendantives' and frieze with an eighteenth-century neoclassical panelled interior suggestive of an arcade, each arch of which incorporates a portrait of 'the distinguished personages connected with the history of the place' (Wright's History of Essex, 1836). An extensive inscription records the genesis and development of the house. The Hon Anne Griffin was the daughter of James, 2nd Lord Griffin (1667-1715) and the younger sister of Hon Elizabeth Griffin, Countess of Portsmouth (1691-1762) from whom Audley End was inherited by Sir John Griffin Griffin (1719-1797) her son. She was married to William Whitwell of Oundle. | Subjects: | Hon. Mrs William Whitwell) portrait (Hon. Anne Griffin | Source: | Vads | Creator: | Artist: Rebecca, Biagio (Italian painter, 1735-1808, active in Great Britain) Æ | Identifier: | http://www.vads.ac.uk/large.php?uid=8737... | Go to resource |
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