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Description: | Oil on canvas. Writer and traveller Maria Callcott continually wore a turban and her head is similarly covered in all her portraits. It has been suggested that she wore the headdress to conceal a childhood injury, caused when she fell backwards into a fire.
This painting was formerly in the collection of politician Henry Petty-Fitzmaurice, third Marquess of Lansdowne and hung in the study of his London residence, Lansdowne House, in Berkley Square. It was here that art historian Gustav Friedrich Waagen viewed the painting. He later wrote: ‘This lady’s noble, delicate, and intelligent features are rendered with great feeling.’
The Marquess lent the painting to an exhibition at the South Kensington Museum in 1868 and a journalist for ‘The Era’, commenting on the exhibition, again expressed approval of the work: ‘Lady Callcott, by Sir A. W. Callcott, draws attention by her very expressive face.’
An ‘oil on board’ version of the portrait, just 15 by 11cm in size, was formerly in the collection of painter John Callcott Horsley (great nephew of Augustus Wall Callcott) and is probably a study for this work. | Subjects: | bracelet Lady Maria Callcott (née Dundas) chair wedding ring ruff female portrait 19th century costume turban book tassel travel & tourism writer | Temporal: | c.1830; 1810/1850 | Source: | Government Art Collection | Creator: | Sir Augustus Wall Callcott | Identifier: | http://www.gac.culture.gov.uk/work.aspx?... | Go to resource |
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