Edward John Poynter - Portrait of Margaret Stuart Wortley

with monogram and dated '1875';
pencil
15 3/4 x 12in. (40 x 30.5cm.)

Margaret Jane Stuart Wortley (d.1937) was the second daughter of the Rt. Hon. James Archibald Stuart Wortley, third son of the 1st Baron Wharncliffe. who served as
Solicitor General 1856-7 before he was crippled by a stroke. She married Major General Sir Reginald Talbot. brother of the 19th Earl of Shrewsbury, in 1877. and was one of nine children of whom several played a part in the art world of the day. Her elder sister Mary. Lady Lovelace. and her brother Archibald ('Archie')were artists. Mary was one of the first woman to study at the Slade. She exhibited at the
Royal Academy. the Grosvenor Gallery and elsewhere, and was later involved in the Arts and Crafts movement, joining Ashbee's Guild of Handicraft and working in collaboration with Voysey. Archie, who also exhibited at the RA and the Grosvenor, studied under Millais and hecame a popular painter of portraits and sporting subjects. His best-known work is the much reproduced likeness of W.G. Grace
belonging to Lord's Cricket Club. Of the other siblings, Charles, who had a distinguished political career and was made 1st Baron Stuart of Wortley in 1917. married Millais' daughter Alice and was a talented amateur musician and friend of Elgar; Caroline wrote novels and married the Hon. Norman Grosvenor, an inmate of Burne-Jones; and Katherine married Sir Neville Lyttelton and joined the circle of 'The Souls'. Her photograph appears in the famous album presented by his friends to Lord Curzon in July 1890.

It is not surprising that Margaret was drawn by Poynter in 1875. Her sister Maly had recently been taught by the artist at the Slade. and it Was during this period that Poynter painted murals at Wortley Hall. near Sheffield. for the 3rd Baron Wharncliffe. the Stuart Wortleys' cousin. Margaret was also painted by her brother Archie; the portrait appeared at the Royal Academy in 1875, the same year as this drawing. and was described by Ruskin in his briefly revived Academy Notes as 'the rightest and most dignified female portrait here'.

We are grateful to Anne Anderson for her help in preparing this entry.