Details

Object type

painting

Title

Antonina Willoughby

Artist/Maker

Nathaniel Hone artist

Culture/School

British

Place Associated

England (place made)

Date

circa 1765

Materials

oil on canvas

Dimensions

framed: 795 mm x 670 mm x 76 mm; unframed: 661 mm x 527 mm

Description

Dublin-born portraitist Nathaniel Hone (1718-1784) began his career as a miniaturist before becoming an itinerant portraitist in England. In 1742 he married the wealthy Mary Earle from Yorkshire and settled in London. After travelling and studying in Italy in 1750-52, he established a successful portrait practice in London and became a founder member of the Royal Academy (1768). However, in 1775 he caused a scandal by satirising Joshua Reynolds, the President of the RA, and fellow member Angelica Kauffman in The Pictorial Conjuror, displaying the Whole Art of Optical Deception (National Gallery of Ireland, Dublin). As a result of the ensuing scandal, Hone resigned from the RA.

Antonina Willoughby (c.1735-1816) was the daughter of the Hon. Thomas Willoughby (1694-1742) of Walkeringham Manor, Nottinghamshire, who was Tory MP for Cambridge University in 1720-27 and then Tamworth in Staffordshire in 1727-34. He was the second son of Thomas Willoughby, the first Baron Middleton (1672-1729) of Middleton Hall in North Warwickshire, who was High Sheriff of Nottingham 1695-96, and Elizabeth Rothwell, wealthy co-heiress of Sir Richard Rothwell of Stapleford, Lincolnshire. According to the family, in 1719 Thomas Willoughby was travelling over the Yorkshire Wolds from Nottingham when he lost his way in a snowstorm. Following a light he saw in the distance, he was led to Birdsall House where the owners, the Sotheby family, gave Thomas refuge for the night. Thomas fell in love with the Sotheby’s only daughter and heiress, Elizabeth, and they married soon after.

Antonina was the youngest of seven children (three sons and four daughters): Henry, 5th Baron Middleton (1726–1800), who inherited the barony of Birdsall and Willoughby estates in Nottinghamshire and Warwickshire from his cousin in 1781; Francis (born 1727) of Hesley Hall, Nottinghamshire; James (1731–1816), rector of Guiseley, Yorkshire; Cassandra; Elizabeth; Emma (died 1781); and Antonina. She married the Rev. Henry Hewgill of Great Smeaton in Yorkshire in 1765. A memorial to Antonina in Great Smeaton Church states that she died on 27 May 1816, in her 81st year, which means that she was 30 years old when she married and when this portrait was probably painted. Henry Hewgill of Hornby Grange in Smeaton, Yorkshire, was rector of Great Smeaton from 1754 to 1848 and lord of the manor of Great Smeaton. He was the eldest son of Henry Hewgill of Little Smeaton and Cordelia Place.

If the portrait is Antonina’s wedding portrait, it is very appropriate that there are carnations on her dress, these being symbolic of love. The date of 1765 is supported by the style of dress she wears, a sack-back gown or robe à la française, with flouncy cuffs. However, the floral design of the silk is more in keeping with a date of twenty years earlier. There is a very similar silk design in the V&A, which was drawn for Mr Gregory, masterweaver in Spitalfields in September 1743. Brocaded silks were expensive commodities and status symbols. By the early 18th-century there was a seasonal fashion cycle and silk designs are usually a strong indicator of date. However, special dresses with personal meaning, such as wedding dresses, were often unpicked and remade for later generations. The pleated robing at the front of this dress may be a remnant from a 1740s dress. The dress wasn’t from Antonina’s mother’s wedding, as she married in 1719, but it could be another treasured family silk, possibly from another member of the family.

Burrell bought this painting from the dealer Lockett Thomson of Barbizon House in London on 18 November 1931 for £350 (no. 31), and Burrell received it in May 1932 at Hutton Castle.

Credit Line/Donor

Gifted by Sir William and Lady Burrell to the City of Glasgow, 1944

Collection

Burrell Collection: Pictures [Oils, Pastels and Watercolours]

ID Number

35.284

Location

Burrell Collection