“missing” portraits

Images for which I am actively SEARCHING, include:

From an 1824 letter to Marianne (or, Mary-Anne) Perozzi:

Augusta Smith (aka Augusta Wilder) gifted likenesses of
* herself, Augusta Smith
* her mother, Augusta Smith

Sold (27 March 2017) on eBay Germany, a drawing (pen & ink) :

Bersted Lodge, by Lady Elizabeth Dickins (1835)

Portraits by Mrs Margaret Carpenter:

Harriet Colebrooke (1819)
Mrs Smith (“Mamma”) (1821)
Augusta Smith (1821)
John Bramston (1821) [Augusta draws him too!]
Mrs Judith Smith (“Aunt”) – “only a drawing” (1825)
Fanny Smith (1826)
Augusta Smith – for a picture in oils (1827)
Emma Smith (1827)
Edward Austen (1829)
Spencer Smith (1832)

she is also known to have done an “Eton Leaving” portrait of Henry Beaufoy Wilder (Augusta & Henry’s younger son)

Portraits once at Suttons
(mentioned in Visitation of England and Wales):

Papa Smith (portrait)
Mamma Smith (miniature)
Belinda, Charles*, Mary (portraits)
little Charles, his wife Agnes Cure, their sons Drummond & Reginald (portraits)
Drummond Smith (Emma’s brother)

*June 2019, in searching the letters and diaries for sittings, I found again mention that Charles sat to a Mr. Wilkins [no first name] in 1823; if I mis-read, it could be ‘Wilkin’ – NPG lists a Francis William Wilkin, painter & engraver (1791-1842); but NONE of the sample (etchings) lead me to conclude that he painted a portrait of Charles glimpsed in an early (1860s?) photograph. Wilkins may simply not show up at NGP.

Unknown:

March 1825 letter (Emma to Mamma Smith) mentions a portrait of Mary Gosling which Emma claims she not only wants but “can afford”; no mention of artist, or medium.

A diary entry describes a “Souvenir of the Year 1810″, a gift given by Margaret Lady Smith-Burgess, as a netting box with her picture inset on the cover. No further details.

A 1798 letter from Eliza Chute to her sister Augusta Smith mentions a picture of Augusta, which is deemed “extremely like”; it could have been a companion to the drawing of Maria, Lady Northampton by Eliza Chute.

In a later letter (1860s) written by Maria (Lady Culme Seymour) to her brother Spencer Smith of Brooklands, mention is made of a miniature of their father, Charles Smith of Suttons. It was something in Lady Culme Seymour’s possession. It is unknown who the painter might have been.

Portrait (miniature?) by Mrs Johnson:

soon after her marriage, Augusta Smith (Mamma) writes in her diary (on Thursday May 31, 1798): Began sitting to Mrs Johnson for my Picture. I don’t believe the citation is MISTER (though it could be), yet can find no information on an artist called ‘Mrs Johnson’.

Portraits by Miss Mary Ann Knight:

Mamma Smith (1816)
Augusta Smith (destined for Belinda Colebrooke) (1822)

Portraits by Sir William Beechey:

entire Gosling family: individual portraits of William and Charlotte (de Grey) Gosling; the three eldest sons, William Ellis, Robert, and Bennett; duo portrait of Elizabeth and Mary [August 2013: news on the portraits of the boys: they exist! Described as “dapper, good-looking young men”.]
* a family source says several portraits, in poor shape after improper WWII storage, were later destroyed
* 1958 Sotheby’s sale of the double portrait of Elizabeth and Mary Gosling = where is this portrait now?

Thomas Smith, of Fonthill, Jamaica and Bersted Lodge, Bognor. Sold in the same Sotheby’s sale as the dual portrait of Mary and Elizabeth Gosling (19 Feb 1958); description: three-quarter length, seated by his desk, wearing a dark brown coat and fawn breeches (50×40 inches)

Susan Mackworth-Praed, his wife. Sold at Christie’s in July 1901. She was the twin sister of the Countess of Mayo; description: in red dress, with cloak lined with ermine, pearl necklace, seated on a terrace. Three-quarter length, face almost in profile, looking towards the right; a column in the background (50×40 inches)
*News*: November 2011 Bonham’s auction has a miniature of Susannah Smith, by James Leakey!

Portraits by Mr Nicholls (no first name given):

Augusta Wilder (1835)
Emma seems to have sat to the man too. Also she and Chomeley sat to him for a small work in oils
Little Charles Austen (1835); and Amy Austen (1834)

Portraits by Fanny Corbaux:

various Smith, Gosling, and Compton/Dickins children during the 1830s
Miss Ashley (1831) [Emma tells Aunt the portrait is ‘very nearly as like Mamma’s’; painted for Charlotte]
Mrs Augusta Smith (1831) [same letter intimates that Aunt herself also drew a picture of Mamma]
Eliza Le Marchant (1840) [in a letter Mamma asks, ‘are you sitting to Miss Corbaux?’]

Mr Nash portrait:

Spencer Compton (2nd Marquess of Northampton) (1815)

for reference: see portrait of Spencer by Raeburn at Bridgeman Art Library online; Raeburn also painted Lady Compton (Margaret Maclean Clephane)

Thomas Gainsborough portrait:

Joshua Smith, of Erle Stoke Park, Wiltshire. Sold in the same Sotheby’s sale as the dual portrait of Mary and Elizabeth Gosling (19 Feb 1958). Description: half-length in blue coat and red doublet in a landscape setting (36 1/2x 27 1/2 inches)

Emma Smith portrait:

Joshua Smith, of Erle Stoke Park. Description: Three-quarter length, in black coat and yellow waistcoat (37×28 inches). This was sold in the same Sotheby’s sale of 19 Feb 1958. Was it a copy of the Gainsborough portrait (similar in size)? And which Emma Smith painted it? No idea as to medium.

Augusta Smith Wilder portraits:

Augusta is not only described as talented, there are numerous mentions of her ‘taking likenesses’ or ‘shades’ in the family diaries and letters. Where are they all? One gets mentioned  by her niece Mary Augusta Austen Leigh: a portrait — said to be ‘very like’ of brother Drummond. Augusta’s pictures also grace the book Scenes from Life at Suttons – which I’ve never yet seen (it is mentioned in a book on Jane Austen; published by Spottiswoode). June 2011 Update: I now HAVE this book, thanks to a Wiltshire seller on eBay! Where are the original drawings?

Miss Scott (no first name), described by Mamma as ‘a paintress here’ in Brighton:

Alwyne Compton (son of the 2nd Marquess Northampton) (1830)

Miniatures by Sir William Charles Ross:

The Rev. Richard Seymour writes of his own sitting to Ross (in London), in April 1836; then of Ross’ visit to Kinwarton to paint his wife Fanny in September 1836.

In the book Miniature Painters British and Foreign by Joshua James Foster (2 vols., 1903) are MORE by William Charles Ross; yes, Frances (nee Seymour) Smith (which has surfaced at auction in a copy), but also her husband Spencer Smith, both dating to 1835.

Mrs Spencer Smith is down as owner of a miniature of “the late Rear-Admiral Sir Michael Seymour, bart”.

While Maria Smith‘s (Lady Culme Seymour) 1844 portrait has surfaced (auction), Ross also painted in 1844 its companion, Sir John Culme Seymour. Has he too sold out of the family?

Also listed in Miniature Painters (Foster, 1903):

Charles Compton, Marquess of Northampton, by C.F. Zincke

Miniatures sold at 2006 Sotheby’s Auction, by Mrs Anne Mee:

Maria, Marchioness of Northampton, circa 1795, described as “with powdered and piled hair, wearing a white dress, cloud and sky background; cracked, gold frame, glazed hair reverse”.
It sold with a dual miniature of the Marquess of Northampton (by Engleheart) and Maria’s mother Sarah Smith (Mrs Joshua Smith). He is illustrated; she is described as “with powdered and curled hair, wearing a white gown, sky background”.
Would LOVE to hear from the buyer! If only to SEE an image of Sarah Smith (from whom I do have letters…)

Miniature, by George Englehart:

Listed in a Sotheby’s catalogue (sale 16 Oct 1980): “George Engleheart, 1782 [lot] 135 Lady Cunliffe, wife of Sir Ellis Cunliffe, her powdered hair piled high and adorned with a lemon and blue scarf, wearing a matching lemon and blue jacket over a white dress, cloud and sky background set on the lid of a hinged navette-shaped ivory patch-box, the gold mounts bright-cut and the interior fitted with a mirror, the miniature oval 4.2cm…” (see blog post)

Pastel Miniatures by Thomas Lawrence:

The online catalogue Dictionary of Pastellists before 1800 has a portrait of Margaret Lady Smith Burgess; she was painted with a companion of her husband, Sir John: “pastel 37×32, c.1786”. (Major Y.A. Burges, Parkanaur, Castle Caulfield, Co. Tyrone, Ireland, 1964. Lit: Garlick 1964). Sir John was brother to Emma’s grandfather, Joshua Smith.

Silhouettes by Auguste Edouart:

Edouart’s “duplicate” books once existed (in essense, his sitters’ list), until a fateful accident, which means those samples he once had retained were lost – and guess which period is affect by that shipwreck [in short, those years represented below]. See “the shades of Pemberley” and “Profiles of the Past” posts for more info.

Rev. Henry Wilder, Purley Hall, Reading (London, 21 Mar 1829)

Mrs Austen, 6, Portland Place (London, 3 Apr 1829)
Rev. J.E Austen, 6, Portland Place (London, 3 Apr 1829)

Sir Charles Smith, 6, Portland Place (London, 4 Apr 1829)
Lady Smith (London, 4 Apr 1829)
Baby Miss Smith (London, 4 Apr 1829)
Miss Smith, Portland Place (London, 4 Apr 1829)
Langham Christie, Esq. No. 2, Cumberland Street, Portman Square (London, 4 Apr 1829)
Chas. Dickins, Esq. (London, 4 Apr 1829)
Lady Eliz. Dickins (London, 4 Apr 1829)

Chas. Cunliffe Smith (London, 9 Apr 1829)
Drummond Smith, Esq. (London, 9 Apr 1829)

Spencer Smith, Esq. (London, 10 Apr 1829)
Miss Gosling, 6, Portland Place (London, 10 Apr 1829)

Chas. Wm. Christie, Esq., No. 2 Cumberland Street, Portman Square (London, 20 May 1829)

Rev. Sir John Seymour, Bart., St Peter’s Cathedral (2 ports.) (Gloucester, 1 Nov 1836)
Lady John Seymour (Gloucester, 1 Nov 1836)
Master Michael Seymour (Gloucester, 1 Nov 1836)

Portrait(s) by Martin Cregan:

In September and October of 1832 Mrs Thomas Smith of Bersted Lodge (née Susannah Macworth Praed) writes of sitting for her portrait – at the behest of her sister Arabella, Lady Mayo. The artist, Martin Cregan, returned on 2 October to “finish my portrait – and to alter the robes of Lord Mayos”; therefore, the same artist may have done an earlier (or companion?) portrait of Arabella’s husband. The families were then resident in Ireland.