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SIR JOSHUA REYNOLDS P.R.A. 1723-1792 PORTRAIT OF ANNA MARIA DRAYCOTT, COUNTESS OF POMFRET (1737-1787)

full length, standing, wearing Peeress' robes

oil on canvas

LITERATURE AND REFERENCES

George Baker, The History and Antiquities of the County of Northamptonshire, 1838, Part IV, p.145, hanging in the large drawing room;
GTL 1889, p.52, hanging in the gallery;
A. Graves and W.V. Cronin, A History of the Works of Sir Joshua Reynolds, 1899, Vol II, pp.757 - 758;
F 1910, p.9 hanging in The Gallery;
EN 1917, p.2, item 10;
PM 1919, p.5, item 1, in the Upstairs Picture Gallery;
EN 1923, p.5, item 1, £6,500, in the Drawing Room;
AP 1927, p.6, item 1, £6,500, in the Dinning Room;
E.K. Waterhouse, Reynolds, 1941, p. 95;
John Kenworthy Brown, 'Easton Neston, Northamptonshire', The Connoisseur, Vol. 157, November 1964, p.147, fig.10;
David Mannings, Sir Joshua Reynolds, A Complete Catalogue of his Paintings, 2000, Text Volume, p.186, no. 601; Plates Volume, fig. 808
CATALOGUE NOTE

The sitter was the granddaughter and heiress of William Draycott of Sunbury, Middlesex (see lot 127). In Baker's Northamptonshire she is described as "granddaughter and heiress of William Draycot of Chelsea, Co. Middx., esq." Her brother William Delagard, described as "of Bombay", was ancestor of the Scott family. She was a considerable heiress, having inherited the property of Lady Jane Coke, daughter of Thomas 1st Marquess of Wharton, under her will dated 1757. Her somewhat stout appearance caused Charles Townshend to remark that "her tonnage is become equal to her poundage". On 30th April 1764 she married George Fermor, 2nd Earl of Pomfret. Lord Barrington wrote on 9th May 1764: "The Earl of Pomfret has at last taken that deep laden rich aquapulca Miss Draycott... you see what middle-aged Lords of the Bedchamber can do".

The Countess bore her husband three children George, later 3rd Earl of Pomfret, Thomas, later 4th Earl, and Charlotte who married Peter Denys of the Pavilion, Chelsea and Northumberland. The Pomfrets lived at Easton Neston and at her family house at Sunbury in Middlesex where they were visited by George III and Queen Charlotte in 1769.