The Family Collection of the late Countess Mountbatten of Burma

The Family Collection of the late Countess Mountbatten of Burma

View full screen - View 1 of Lot 155. Portrait of Mrs Edward Knatchbull, née Mary Hugessen (1761-1784).

John Russell, R.A.

Portrait of Mrs Edward Knatchbull, née Mary Hugessen (1761-1784)

Auction Closed

March 24, 08:41 PM GMT

Estimate

4,000 - 6,000 GBP

Lot Details

Description

John Russell, R.A.

Guilford 1745 - 1806 Hull

Portrait of Mrs Edward Knatchbull, née Mary Hugessen (1761-1784) 


Pastel, gilt-wood frame

597 x 445 mm.

Sir Joseph Banks (1743-1820), brother-in-law of the sitter;
his wife Dorothea, Lady Banks, née Hugessen, (1758-1828);
her nephew Sir Edward Knatchbull, 9th Bt (1781-1849)
G.C. Williamson, John Russell, R.A., London, 1894, p. 138;
A. Kidson, George Romney, A Complete Catalogue of His Paintings, London, 2015, vol. II, p. 347, no. 759b;
N. Jeffares, Dictionary of Pastellists before 1800, on-line edition, no. J.64.1963
London, South Kensington, Catalogue of Pictures by John Russell, 1894, no. 138

The sitter was the younger daughter of William Western Hugessen of Provender and his wife Thomazine Honywood. On 27th July 1780, aged only seventeen, she married the twenty one year old Edward Knatchbull, heir to Sir Edward Knatchbull 7th Bt, at Heston Parish Church. They were married from Spring Grove, the country house of Joseph Banks, who had married Mary’s sister Dorothea the previous year. They lived at Provender House, the old family seat of Mary’s family, the Hugessens. She died only four years after her wedding, leaving two sons, Edward who succeeded to the baronetcy and Norton who joined the navy.


This picture is a copy by John Russell of the portrait of Mary by George Romney, dating from 1781 shortly after her marriage, and given to her guardian Francis Filmer. Romney painted a second version for the family in 1786.