Lot 76: Charles Robertson (Dublin 1760 - Dublin 1821)

Sarah Anne (née Child), Countess of Westmorland, wearing white dress and matching bandeau in her long powdered hair, curled and falling over her left shoulder
gilt-mounted rectangular papier-mâché frame set with a Earl's coronet
Oval, 60mm. (2 3/8ins.) high
Stansted Park, Rowlands Castle, Hampshire; Sotheby's, 5 October 1999, lot 471

S.N.P.G., 2000-2003

Sarah Anne Child eloped with and married, 20th May 1782, John Fane, 10th Earl of Westmorland (1759-1841). On the 28th July 1782, Lady Derby wrote to Sarah's mother 'Ld Westmorland is, I am told, a very deserving y'g man, and Miss Child handsome, y'g and rich'. The present lot must have been painted by Robertson during Westmorland's time as Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, 1790-95. As Sarah died in 1793, the present lot can therefore be dated to 1790-3. Together they had three daughters and one son, John, who succeeded his father as 11th Earl.
The Stansted Park sale also contained another portrait of the Countess, similarly framed, by Richard Cosway.