The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of March 21, 2024

Portrait of Anne Law (née Towry), 1st Lady Ellenborough

Portrait of Anne Law (née Towry), 1st Lady Ellenborough

c. 1821
(British, 1792–1882)
Framed: 23.4 x 20.7 cm (9 3/16 x 8 1/8 in.); Unframed: 11.3 x 8.5 cm (4 7/16 x 3 3/8 in.)
Location: not on view

Did You Know?

Lady Ellenborough was described as “so exceedingly lovely, that passengers would linger to watch her watering the flowers—such was the fashion of the day—on the balcony of their house in Bloomsbury Square.”

Description

John Linnell was born and lived much of his young adulthood in Bloomsbury, where his father, James, made picture
frames and restored paintings. As a boy the artist trained briefly with Benjamin West (1738–1820) and John Varley (1778–1842) before becoming a student at the Royal Academy from 1805 to 1812. Though primarily known for his landscapes, Linnell was also a prolific portraitist and executed miniatures during the first two decades of his career, learning the medium from his neighbor James Holmes (1770–1860). According to an early biographer, Linnell began painting miniatures around 1818 with a portrait of his wife. By 1823 he had executed a number of miniature commissions from aristocratic patrons, including Princess Sophia, facilitated by the praise of the society maven Lady Stafford. He painted his last known miniature on ivory in 1832. During the approximately fifteen years that the artist painted miniatures, he consistently charged between 10 and 50 guineas for a portrait. These fees corresponded less to the size of the ivory than to the degree of finish and elaboration of the composition.
In this portrait Anne Law (née Towry), 1st Lady Ellenborough (c. 1769–1843), is depicted half length. She wears a high-waisted white dress of translucent fabric through which a hint of blue appears and around which she wears a black belt. A devant de corsage (stomacher, or bodice brooch) is worn at her décolletage, extending to the belt. Its gold framework contains at least twelve semiprecious stones colored blue, red, aquamarine, pink, and brown. A gold brooch with a large blue stone is pinned to the cloak at her right shoulder. She also wears a twisted multistrand pearl necklace, matching pearl pendant earrings, and two gold rings on her left ring finger. A dark gray-green shawl with red reverse, gold border, and red fringe is draped over her shoulders and arms. She holds a closed fan in her left hand and stands against a brown background featuring a green and auburn striped curtain in the upper left corner. The sitter’s fair hair is dressed in ringlets that fall at her neck. The miniature is housed in a standing gilt metal and red velvet frame that dates from the same period.
  • c. 1821-1843
    Anne Law, 1st Lady Ellenborough (née Towry, c. 1769–1843), by inheritance to her daughter, Frederica Selina Ramsden
    1843-79
    Frederica Selina Ramsden (née Law, 1805–1879), Oxton Hall, Yorkshire, by inheritance to her son John Charles Francis Ramsden
    1879-1910
    John Charles Francis Ramsden (1835–1910), Willinghurst, Surrey, by inheritance to his son Capt. Frederick William Ramsden
    1910-1958
    Capt. Frederick William Ramsden (1871–1958), Willinghurst, Surrey, by inheritance to his daughter Moyra Gwendolin Russell-Clarke
    1958-81
    Moyra Gwendolin Russell-Clarke (née Ramsden, 1900–1981), by inheritance to her great-niece Julia Ann Llewellyn
    1981-2010
    Julia Ann Llewellyn (née Cooke, b. 1948), London, England
    November 24, 2010
    (Sale: Bonhams (Knightsbridge) on November 24, 2010, lot 189).
    2010-
    The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
  • Korkow, Cory, and Dario Robleto. Disembodied: Portrait Miniatures and Their Contemporary Relatives. 2013. Mentioned: p. 84
    Korkow, Cory, and Jon L. Seydl. British Portrait Miniatures: The Cleveland Museum of Art. 2013. Cat. no. 71, pp. 271-274
  • Disembodied: Portrait Minatures and their Contemporary Relatives. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (November 10, 2013-February 16, 2014).
  • {{cite web|title=Portrait of Anne Law (née Towry), 1st Lady Ellenborough|url=false|author=John Linnell|year=c. 1821|access-date=21 March 2024|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}

Source URL:

https://www.clevelandart.org/art/2010.461