Henry Edridge, Portrait of John Stanley, later 1st Baron Stanley of Alderley, May–October 1796

Chicago:

Maggie Keenan, “Henry Edridge, Portrait of John Stanley, later 1st Baron Stanley of Alderley, May–October 1796,” catalogue entry in Aimee Marcereau DeGalan, Blythe Sobol, and Maggie Keenan, The Starr Collection of Portrait Miniatures, 1500–1850: The Collections of the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, vol. 2, ed. Aimee Marcereau DeGalan (Kansas City, MO: Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, 2024), https://doi.org/10.37764/8322.5.1362.

MLA:

Keenan, Maggie. “Henry Edridge, Portrait of John Stanley, later 1st Baron Stanley of Alderley, May–October 1796,” catalogue entry. Aimee Marcereau DeGalan, Blythe Sobol, and Maggie Keenan. The Starr Collection of Portrait Miniatures, 1500–1850: The Collections of the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, edited by Aimee Marcereau DeGalan, vol. 2, Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, 2024. doi: 10.37764/8322.5.1362.

See the artist’s biography in volume 4.

Originally commissioned by the sitter, John Stanley, 1st Baron Stanley of Alderley (1766–1850), this miniature was sold by his descendant Edward Stanley, the 6th Baron (1907–1971), more than one hundred and fifty years later, in 1954.¹ John Stanley was a British peer who held a seat in the House of Commons from 1790 to 1796. He inherited his father’s baronetcy in 1807, a peerage that was raised to Baron Stanley of Alderley in 1839. Stanley was also an explorer, celebrated for his scientific expedition to Iceland.²

Stanley married the Honorable Maria Josepha Holroyd, daughter of the 1st Earl of Sheffield. They wed on October 11, 1796, the same year as this miniature, which suggests that it was a marriage portrait.³ Holroyd wrote in a letter of May 30, 1796, just five months shy of her wedding: “The Man [Stanley] is sitting for his Picture to Edridge who painted us all in the Summer, and I think it will be very like.”⁴ Holroyd described how her family had already sat for Edridge and further remarked, “I like the Style both of his Drawings and Miniatures very much.”⁵

Stanley and Holroyd’s match, unlike many marriages at this time, was one of love. Their courtship can be tracked through letters, including one dated May 17, 1796, in which she outlines Stanley’s accomplishments and attractions:

[He] has the most amiable feeling heart I believe a Man can be possessed of, and what is still more, if faith is to be put in Words, Actions and Looks—loves me with the most perfect Love. . . . As to a description of the outside of the Man you perhaps would not be enchanted with his first appearance. He is very dark, black eyebrows that meet, and very near-sighted, but he has a sensible and good-humoured countenance.⁶

Her account takes visual form in Edridge’s rendering: Stanley’s eyes are enlarged, his thick eyebrows “meet” on the bridge of his nose, and his nearsightedness is apparent through the inclusion of a quizzing glass, which hangs from a black ribbon around his neck.⁷ These features also appear in another 1811 portrait by Edridge, as well as a later lithograph (Fig. 1).⁸

While this miniature provides documentation of Stanley’s likeness, there are issues with fading pigmentation in his coat, evidenced by its patchy blue coloration. When the miniature is unframed, an intense indigo blue border is revealed along the frame edge, suggesting that the coat was once a deep blue all over (Fig. 2). Unlike the transient pigment, Stanley’s love for his wife endured, and their legacy lived on through their nine surviving children, one of whom inherited not only the baronetcy but also this very portrait miniature.⁹

Notes

1. See Catalogue of Miniatures, Christie’s, London, May 24, 1938, lot 18, as Portrait of John, 1st Baron Stanley of Alderley (1766–1850).

2. According to his obituary, Stanley and his colleagues traveled there to study “the hot springs, volcanic products, and heights of mountains.” Sylvanus Urban, “Obituary—Lord Stanley of Alderley,” The Gentleman’s Magazine 34 (December 1850): 655.

3. “John Thomas Stanley,” England, Select Marriages, 1538-1973, FHL film number 1067170, Fletching, Sussex, England.

4. J. H. Adeane, ed., The Girlhood of Maria Josepha Holroyd (Lady Stanley of Alderley). Recorded in Letters of a Hundred Years Ago: From 1776 to 1796 (London: Longmans, Green, and Co., 1897), 389. The letter is addressed to Miss Ann Firth.

5. It seems likely that Holroyd suggested that Edridge capture Stanley’s likeness. Edridge painted Holroyd’s sister, Louisa Dorothea Holroyd, in miniature in 1795 and sketched her father and stepmother in 1798. “It would have been so delightful to have had you done by Mr. Edridge,” wrote Maria Josepha Holroyd in 1795. “I wish you could contrive to be miniatured. I hope you will like Louisa’s. Everybody as yet who have seen it quite squall at the resemblance. I own I did not expect anything near so like”; Maria Josepha Holroyd to “Serena,” Sheffield Place, September 20, 1795, in Adeane, Girlhood of Maria Josepha Holroyd, 332, 336. This letter is also addressed to Miss Ann Firth, a close family friend. At the time of this writing, Edridge’s miniature of Louisa Dorothea Holroyd was for sale at Wigs on the Green: Louisa Dorothea Holroyd, 1795, watercolor on ivory, 2 7/8 x 2 1/4 in. (7.3 x 5.9 cm), ref. 7446, https://www.wigsonthegreen.co.uk/portrait/feeling-autumnal/. The portraits of Holroyd’s parents are at the National Portrait Gallery, London: Henry Edridge, John Baker Holroyd, 1st Earl of Sheffield, 1798, pencil and wash, 10 3/4 x 7 1/4 in. (27.3 x 18.4 cm), NPG 2185, https://www.npg.org.uk/collections/search/portrait/mw05755/John-Baker-Holroyd-1st-Earl-of-Sheffield, and Anne Holroyd (née North), Countess of Sheffield, 1798, pencil and wash, 10 1/2 x 7 1/4 in. (26.7 x 18.4 cm), NPG 2185a, https://www.npg.org.uk/collections/search/portrait/mw05756/Anne-Holroyd-ne-North-Countess-of-Sheffield. There are also three full-length portraits by Edridge at the Nelson-Atkins, including one that was donated by Mr. and Mrs. Starr; see A Gentleman in His Library.

6. Adeane, Girlhood of Maria Josepha Holroyd, 384–85.

7. Stanley’s eyebrows led to family nicknames such as Crow and Maître Corbeau (French for “Master Raven”). Adeane, Girlhood of Maria Josepha Holroyd, 385n1.

8. Henry Edridge, Portrait of 1st Lord Stanley of Alderley, 1811, pencil and watercolor with gum arabic and heightened with white, 11 1/4 x 9 3/8 in. (28.6 x 23.8 cm), “British Art on Paper including Victorian Watercolours from the Albert Dawson Collection, Sold to Benefit the Albert Dawson Educational Trust,” Christie’s, London, June 3, 2004, lot 111, https://www.christies.com/en/lot/lot-4293230. There is a corresponding lithograph of Maria: Isaac Wane Slater, printed by Charles Joseph Hullmandel, after Joseph Slater, Maria Josepha Stanley (née Holroyd), Lady Stanley of Alderley, ca. 1828–36, 16 1/8 x 11 1/8 in. (41.1 x 28.2 cm), National Portrait Gallery, London, https://www.npg.org.uk/collections/search/portrait/mw206692/Maria-Josepha-Stanley-ne-Holroyd-Lady-Stanley-of-Alderley.

9. According to conversations with conservator Carol Aiken, 2018; notes in NAMA curatorial files. They had eleven children in total, but one drowned in 1817 at the age of four and another died in 1811, aged three years. Urban, “Obituary,” 656.

Commissioned by the sitter, John Thomas Stanley, 1st Baron Stanley of Alderley (1766–1850), or his wife, Lady Maria Josepha Stanley, Baroness Stanley of Alderley (1771–1863), Alderley Park, Cheshire, England, May–October 1796;

By descent to their son, Edward John Stanley, 2nd Baron Stanley of Alderley (1802–1869), Alderley Park, Cheshire, England, by 1863–1869;

By descent to his son, Edward Lyulph Stanley, 4th Baron Sheffield, 4th Baron Stanley of Alderley, and 3rd Baron Eddisbury (1839–1925), Alderley Park, Cheshire, England, 1869–1925;

By descent to his son, Arthur Lyulph Stanley, 5th Baron Sheffield, 5th Baron Stanley of Alderley, and 4th Baron Eddisbury (1875–1931), Alderley Park, Cheshire, England, 1925–1931;

By descent to his son, Edward John Stanley, 6th Baron Sheffield, 6th Baron Stanley of Alderley, and 5th Baron Eddisbury (1907–1971), Alderley Park, Cheshire, England, 1931–1938;

Purchased from his sale, Miniatures, Objects of Art, and Vertu, Christie’s, London, May 24, 1938, lot 18, as Portrait of John, 1st Baron Stanley of Alderley (1766–1850), by Pawsey and Payne, London, 1938 [1];

Mrs. Marjorie Rees (d. after 1954), by 1954 [2];

Purchased from her sale, Fine Portrait Miniatures, Faberge, Watches, and Objects of Vertu, Sotheby’s, London, November 11, 1954, lot 53, as John, 1st Baron Stanley of Alderley, by Leggatt Brothers, London, probably on behalf of Mr. John W. (1905–2000) and Mrs. Martha Jane (1906–2011) Starr, Kansas City, MO, 1954–1958 [3];

Their gift to The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, MO, 1958.

Notes

[1] The lot description states, “Henry Edridge, A.R.A. Portrait of John, 1st Baron Stanley of Alderley (1766-1850), three-quarter face to the left, in blue coat, white cravat and with a quizzing glass—oval, signed, and dated 1796.” According to Art Prices Current (1937–38), p. A95, no. 3817, Pawsey and Payne bought lot 18 for “£9 10s.”

[2] Additional information on Rees remains unknown, but her life dates may be ca. 1899–1955.

[3] The lot description states, “John, 1st Baron Stanley of Alderley by Henry Edridge, signed and dated 1796, nearly full face, powdered hair en queue, in knotted white cravat and blue coat against a brown background, hair at back, oval, 2 3/4 in.” An annotated sales catalogue is located at the University of Missouri-Kansas City, Miller Nichols Library and is likely annotated by Mr. or Mrs. Starr with a circled lot number and “Bid 75.” According to an attached price list, Leggatt bought lot 53 for 25 pounds. Archival research has shown that Leggatt Brothers served as purchasing agents for the Starrs. See correspondence between Betty Hogg and Martha Jane Starr, May 15 and June 3, 1950, Nelson-Atkins curatorial files.

Henry Edridge, Portrait of, 1st Lord Stanley of Alderley, 1811, pencil and watercolor with gum arabic and heightened with white, 11 1/4 x 9 3/8 in. (28.6 x 23.8 cm), sold at Christie’s, London, “British Art on Paper,” June 3, 2004, lot 111.

Exhibition of the Royal House of Guelph, New Gallery, London, December 31, 1890–April 4, 1891, no. 459, p. 54, as John Thomas Stanley, M.P., 1st Lord Stanley of Alderley.

The Starr Foundation Collection of Miniatures, The Royal Ontario Museum, Toronto, December 8, 1972–January 14, 1973, no cat., no. 180, as John, 1st Baron Stanley of Alderley.

Catalogue of Miniatures, Objects of Art, and Vertu (London: Christie’s, May 24, 1938), 6, as Portrait of John, 1st Baron Stanley of Alderley (1766–1850).

Art Prices Current, 17 October 1937 to August 1938 (London: Art Trade Press, 1938), A95, no. 3817, as John, Baron Stanley of Alderley.

Catalogue of Fine Portrait Miniatures, Faberge, Watches, and Objects of Vertu (London: Sotheby’s, November 11, 1954), 10, as John, 1st Baron Stanley of Alderley.

Ross E. Taggart, The Starr Collection of Miniatures in the William Rockhill Nelson Gallery (Kansas City, MO: Nelson Gallery-Atkins Museum, 1971), no. 180, p. 61, (repro.), as John, 1st Baron Stanley of Alderley.