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Watercolour over traces of pencil

30.4 x 27.7 cm., 12 x 10 ? inches

Provenance:

Anonymous sale, Sotheby?s, 12^th May 1986, lot 208

Lady Beauclerk was born Lady Diana Spencer and was the eldest daughter of Charles Spencer, 3^rd Duke of Marlborough. Lady Di, as she was known, grew up at Langley Park and Blenheim Palace and made copies of the pictures there from a young age. In 1757 she married the 2^nd Viscount Bolingbroke but was divorced by him in 1768 due to her adultery with Topham Beauclerk (1739-1780), whom she married two days later. They moved in court circles and Lady Diana?s closest friends were the countesses of Pembroke and Spencer and the Duchess of Devonshire. Horace Walpole, Lord Orford, was also a close friend of the couple and the diarist Joseph Farington recalls his views of them:

`Lord Orford mentioned many particulars relative to the late Mr. Topham Beauclerc [the celebrated wit]. He said He was the worst tempered man He ever knew. Lady Di passed a most miserable life with him. Lord 0, out of regard to her invited them occasionally to pass a few days at Strawberry Hill. They slept in separate beds. Beauclerc was remarkably filthy in his person which generated vermin. He took Laudanum regularly in vast quantities. He seldom rose before one or two o'clock.?

She was well known for her drawings of children and infant cupids and bacchantes, some of which were engraved by Bartolozzi, and she also produced designs for Wedgwood pottery. Walpole was a great admirer of her work and built a room at Strawberry Hill to house her drawings. Examples of her work are in the V and A, the Royal Collection and the British Museum. For more on the artist, see B. C. Erskine, Lady Diana Beauclerk: her life and work, 1903.
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Watercolour over traces of pencil

14.8 x 18.9 cm., 5 ? x 7 ? in.

Lady Beauclerk was born Lady Diana Spencer and was the eldest daughter of Charles Spencer, 3^rd Duke of Marlborough. She grew up at Blenheim Palace and made copies of the pictures there from a young age. In 1757 she married the 2^nd Viscount Bolingbroke but divorced him in 1768 and married Topham Beauclerk (1739-1780) two days later. They moved in court circles and Lady Diana?s closest friends were the Countesses of Pembroke and Spencer and the Duchess of Devonshire.

After her husband?s death, she moved into Devonshire Cottage in Richmond. She was well known for her drawings of children and infant cupids and bacchantes, some of which were engraved by Bartolozzi, and she also produced designs for Wedgwood pottery. Horace Walpole was a great admirer of her work and built a room at Strawberry Hill to house her drawings. Examples of her work are in the V. & A., the Royal Collection and the British Museum. For a similar drawing entitled `Cupids with Doves?, see Beatrice Erskine, Lady Diana Beauclerk, her Life and Work, 1903, p.xii.
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Signed under mount: D:B:/Children and Donkey

Grey washes over pencil

182 x 153 mm, 7 1/4 x 6 ¼ in

Provenance:

By descent from the artist to Colonel Lascelles of Woolbeding House, 1903 as part of an album

By descent until 1971

Gerald Norman Gallery

Literature

Beatrice Erskine, Lady Diana Beauclerk - her Life and Work, 1903, ill. p. ix

Gerald Norman Gallery, Lady Diana Beauclerk, exhibition catalogue, 1971, no. 18, ill. p.3

Exhibited

London, Gerald Norman Gallery, Lady Diana Beauclerk, 1971, no.18

Thumbnail panels:

Lady Diana Beauclerk 1734-1808

Lady Beauclerk was born Lady Diana Spencer and was the eldest daughter of Charles Spencer, 3^rd Duke of Marlborough. Lady Di, as she was known, grew up at Langley Park and Blenheim Palace and made copies of the pictures there from a young age. In 1757 she married the 2^nd Viscount Bolingbroke but was divorced by him in 1768 due to her adultery with Topham Beauclerk (1739-1780), whom she married two days later. They moved in court circles and Lady Diana?s closest friends were the countesses of Pembroke and Spencer and the Duchess of Devonshire. Horace Walpole, Lord Orford, was also a close friend of the couple and the diarist Joseph Farington recalls his views of them:

`Lord Orford mentioned many particulars relative to the late Mr. Topham Beauclerc [the celebrated wit]. He said He was the worst tempered man He ever knew. Lady Di passed a most miserable life with him. Lord 0, out of regard to her invited them occasionally to pass a few days at Strawberry Hill. They slept in separate beds. Beauclerc was remarkably filthy in his person which generated vermin. He took Laudanum regularly in vast quantities. He seldom rose before one or two o'clock.?

She was well known for her drawings of children and infant cupids and bacchantes, some of which were engraved by Bartolozzi, and she also produced designs for Wedgwood pottery. Walpole was a great admirer of her work and built a room at Strawberry Hill to house her drawings. Examples of her work are in the V and A, the Royal Collection and the British Museum. For more on the artist, see B. C. Erskine, Lady Diana Beauclerk: her life and work, 1903.