+ Expand

Dimensions: 43 by 38 cm.; 17 by 15 in.

+ Expand

Provenance: Commissioned by the 1^st Baron Scarsdale, the sitter's father, and by descent to the Hon.Caroline Esther Curzon, daughter of 2^nd Baron Scarsdale, who married William Drury Holden of Denby and Locko;
Thence by family descent

+ Expand

Exhibited: Birmingham Museums and Art Gallery, Works of Art from Midland Houses, 1953, no. 82;
Tawney House, Matlock, Joseph Wright of Derby, 1964, no. 14;
Nottingham University Art Gallery, Pictures from Locko Park, Derbyshire, 1968, no. 33;
Nottingham University Art Gallery, Locko Park and the Drury-Lowes, A Derbyshire Family and its Art Treasures, 1982, no. 63;
Lichfield Festival, Wright of Derby, 1986, no. 1.

+ Expand

Literature: W. Bemrose, The Life and Works of Wright of Derby, A.R.A., 1885, p. 119;
J.P. Richter, 1901, p. 5, no. 16;
B. Nicolson, Joseph Wright of Derby: painter of light, London/New York 1968, vol. I, pp. 2, 26, 88, 96, 98 and 191, reproduced vol. II, plate 5;
A. Smart, "The Locko Park Collection", in Apollo, March 1968, vol. LXXXVII, no. 73, p. 206;
L. Vertova, "La Raccolta di Locko Park", Antichità Viva, May - June 1968, Anno VII, no. 3, p. 23;
J. Cornforth, "Locko Park, Derbyshire", in Country Life, 12 June 1969, p. 1510, reproduced plate 5;
R. Calvocoressi, "Locko Park, An Important Family Collection", in The Connoisseur, June 1976, vol. 192, p. 142, pl.1

+ Expand

Notes: This charming portrait was painted circa 1760. It is listed in Wright's account book as "Miss Curzon, £33". The Curzons were amongst Wright's earliest illustrious patrons, and the sitter's brother, Nathaniel, later 2^nd Baron Scarsdale, was also painted by Wright as a companion work to this portrait. The sitter was the daughter of Sir Nathaniel Curzon, 5^th Bt., of Kedleston Hall, County Derby, who was later created 1^st Baron Scarsdale in April 1761, and his wife, Caroline, daughter of Charles Colyear, 2^nd Earl of Portmore. She died unmarried.

Kedleston Hall was built for Sir Nathaniel Curzon between 1759-65 who employed Robert Adam to design the south front and the lavish interior. The sitter was almost certainly born at Kedleston Hall, and the portrait of her brother by Wright remains in situ.