The mysterious mother [art original] : Act 3d, Scene 3d / by Lady Diana Beauclerc [sic].

[England], 1776.

1 drawing : black ink and soot water ; sheet 328 x 416 mm

wove paper 12 15/16 x 16.25 in.

1842, May 13, Strawberry Hill Sale, Day 17, Lot 32, Hon. Dawson-Damer, MP; 1885, August 1, Christie's, Lot 74, seven illustrations and Horace Walpole's own copy of the book, Col. Aldridge; 1962, May, Pickering & Chatto, W.S. Lewis (six illustrations).

Lady Diana Beauclerk, English artist, 1734-1808.

From Horace Walpole's 1784 edition of Description of the villa, he describes the Beauclerk drawings thus: "The beauty and grace of the figures and of the children are inimitable; the expression of the passions most masterly, particularly in the devotion of the countess with the porter, of Benedict in the scene with Martin, and the tenderness, despair, and resolution of the countess in the last scene; in which is a new stroke of double passion in Edmund, whose right hand is clenched and ready to strike with anger, the left hand relents. In the scene of the children, some are evidently vulgar, the others children of rank; and the first child, that pretends to look down and does leer upwards, is charming. Only two scenes are represented in all the seven, and yet all are varied; and the ground in the first, by a very uncommon effect, evidently descends and rises again. These sublime drawings are the first histories she ever attempted, were all conceived and executed in a fortnight."

English

October 09, 2008

Lady Diana Beauclerk, Mysterious Mother Act 3d, Scene 3d. The Lewis Walpole Library, Yale University.

Lady Diana Beauclerk, Mysterious Mother Act 3d, Scene 3d. The Lewis Walpole Library, Yale University.

Walpole, Horace, 1717-1797. Mysterious Mother > Illustrations.