Page 3 - Christmas 2018

Signed on the reverse Ly Pembroke/Dau of Carmarthan/ in the Colln of Duchs /of Portland Copy'd /by me MBL:
The only surviving child of 3rd Earl of Cumberland, Lady Anne Clifford became famous for fighting a long and determined legal battle over what she believed to be her rightful inheritance: extensive properties in Westmorland and Yorkshire, which her father had left to his brother. She was married, unhappily, first to the 3rd Earl of Dorset and later to the 4th Earl of Pembroke. After finally coming into her inheritance when her cousin died in 1643, she spent the last decades of her life restoring and rebuilding the castles and churches on her properties. She commissioned numerous portraits, including two large triptychs and works of family history. At her death she was probably the wealthiest noblewoman in England.
Margaret Bingham, 1st Countess of Lucan (d. 1814) was the daughter and heir of James Smith, M.P. In 1760 she married Sir Charles Bingham, Bt. (1735-1799) who was created Baron Lucan in 1776 and Earl of Lucan in 1795. It is believed that she began to paint miniatures in 1771. Some of her works, mostly family, were taken from life, but most are after well-known works, which she usually inscribed and signed with initials on the reverse. The Countess had five children, including Lavinia, who married the 2nd Earl Spencer and was immortalized in her famous portrait by Sir Joshua Reynolds. Lady Lucan, whose own beauty was described as "luscious" was a great patron of the arts. In Walpole's published correspondence there is a three page letter from Lady Lucan thanking him for his praise of her talent, of which he had written "...Raphael, by genius nurs'd by labour, gain'd it : Bingham but saw perfection and attain'd it"
Year
Circa 1780.
Medium
watercolour on ivory,
Signed / Inscribed / Dated
Signed on the reverse.
Provenance
The Lucan family
Condition
Good.
2