Face of a Neighbor
Inevitably, whenever _I_ find something up for sale, the sale is LONG past.
Same applies for this portrait of Joanna (Miss Cure). By the time the painting was done, circa 1850, she would have been Mrs. Philips of Heath House, Staffordshire. (She married in 1826.)
The original auction took place in April 2022, at Mellors & Kirk (see the catalogue, which currently still has pictures of the items).
A secondary sale of the portrait has also taken place (with a subsequent “hike” in price).
Emma’s diaries include visits to and from “the Miss Cures” – Joanna Freeman and Mary Caroline, the two daughters of the Capel Cure who died in 1820. Visits took place both in London and at the Cures’ home estate in Essex, Blake Hall, a “neighbor” to the Smiths’ Essex estate of Suttons. Children of their brother Capel Cure (who died in 1878) married children of Mary and Charles Joshua Smith in the mid-19th century: Augusta Smith married Lawrence Capel Cure; her brother Sir Charles Cunliffe Smith (baronet) married Agnes Capel Cure.
- see Silvy photographs of Sir Charles Cunliffe Smith and his wife Agnes Lady Smith at NPG.
- more Cures: parents Capel Cure, his wife née Frederica Cheney; their son Edward and daughter Rosamond.
One problem with the portrait, the plaque of which identifies the sitter as “Joanna Capel-Cure, 1797-1858” (which ARE the dates for Mrs. Philips), is the youth of sitter in a portrait purportedly painted in 1850. The only two “Joannas” in the family tree at this time were the sister, Joanna Freeman Cure (Mrs. Philips) and mother Joanna, born Coape (her sister Frances married William Smith MP) [the Smiths’ daughter Frances married into the Nightingale family].
Joanna Freeman Cure would have been 53-years-old in 1850. This youthful girl, with a come-hither gaze, displays no whiff of middle-aged Victorian matron.
Capel and Frederica Cure had four daughters:
- Frederica Mary, who died in 1835, aged 10;
- Rosamond Harriet, the surviving eldest sister (born 1831) [same Silvy portrait at Paul Frecker]
- Emmeline, who died, aged 19, in 1854 (born in 1835)
- Agnes Frederica, the youngest sister (born in 1836).
It’s hard not to wonder if the plaque wasn’t added, erroneously, at a later date. IF it were originally identified as “Miss Capel Cure” – that could point to Rosamond. Yet photographs of her, taken by her brother Alfred in the 1850s, shows a broader chin, a heavier face.
It is possible that Mrs. Philips acquired a portrait of her deceased niece, Emmeline. There also exists a later Cure-Philips intermarriage: ROBERT Capel Cure’s son Ernest married John Capel Philips’ daughter Frances Margaret.
Thank goodness for HEATH HOUSE!
Back in 2009 the estate was up for sale. Ruth Watson visited, as part of her show Country House Rescue. This Heath House episode is online. Forward to 2023 and the estate has sold – thus the 2022 auction of items! The TV show offers an interesting look at two generations – one only too happy to be rid of their “white elephant.” Viewer comments are enlightening. And the video – showing a magnificent house and grounds (if run-down) – is priceless for filling in with a true portrait of Mrs. Philips née Joanna Cure.
At the VERY least, here is the face of Emma Austen’s neighbor, an intimate of Emma’s youth in Essex and London. As the woman behind the building of Heath House (and probably behind much of the furnishings that came via their grand tour while the house was being built in the later 1830s), the portraits of Joanna and her husband John Burton Philips were prominently hung – you will spot them several times if you view the video. Are they still owned by the Philips family? And who is the sitter of the portrait at the head of this blog post?? WHERE does “she” live now? I would love to hear more…
Two Teens in the Time of Austen 
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