Bonhams 1793 : Sir William Charles Ross, RA (British, 1794-1860) Lady Augusta Margaret Fitzclarence (1822-1846), standing in an interior and wearing white dress with pale blue trim to her décollage and blue sash, her hair worn loose, she stands before a window with crimson drapes, and ornate gilt vase of pink roses on the windowsill

Lady Augusta Margaret Fitzclarence (1822-1846), standing in an interior and wearing white dress with pale blue trim to her décollage and blue sash, her hair worn loose, she stands before a window with crimson drapes, and ornate gilt vase of pink roses on the windowsill.
Signed on the reverse and dated Painted by Sir W.C. Ross R.A., miniature painter to the Queen 1844, ormolu frame with rocaille border, set within velvet lined brown leather travelling case.
Rectangular, 172mm (6 3/4in) high
Provenance: The sitter's uncle, Rev Lord Augustus FitzClarence, Vicar of Mapledurham
his wife, Lady FitzClarence
their daughter, Miss Eva FitzClarence
her nephew, Major T.C.E. Goff
thence by descent
Bonhams, 5 November 2002, lot 160

Sold for £6,000 inc. premium

Footnotes

Lady Augusta was a daughter of George Augustus Frederick FitzClarence, 1st Earl of Munster PC (17941842). He was the eldest of William IV's ten illegitimate children with his long-term mistress, the Irish actress, Dorothea Jordan. Nine of their children were named after William's siblings and given the surname, 'FitzClarence'. Lady Augusta's mother, Mary Wyndham (d. 1842) was also of illegitimate birth, the daughter of George Wyndham, 3rd Earl of Egremont and his mistress Elizabeth Fox. George and Mary had seven children of which Lady Augusta was the second.

The Earl committed suicide at the age of forty-eight in London. He shot himself with a pistol presented to him by King George IV when Prince of Wales. His wife Mary died in the same year leaving Lady Augusta and her siblings orphans. Given the provenance of the present lot, it is probable that their uncle, the Reverend Lord Augustus FitzClarence, a bachelor living in Oxfordshire at the time, took charge of the children.

Lady Augusta married the Swedish Baron, Philip Knut de Bonde (1815-1871) in Paris in 1844, the same year that the present lot was painted, possibly as a keepsake for her uncle. In 1846, she gave birth to a daughter in Sweden named, Ingeborg Augusta Sofia de Bonde (1846-1872), but Lady Augusta died just six days following the birth.

Category: Fine Art / Portrait Miniatures

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