Lot 261
FRANÇOIS THÉODORE ROCHARD (FRENCH 1798-1858)
FOUR PORTRAITS OF LADIES
Auction: Five Centuries Day One | Wed 13th May | Lots 68 to 297
Description
watercolour on paper, including a PORTRAIT OF THE HON. MRS TALBOT AND MRS BARNELEY, modelled as The Hon. Mrs Talbot, wearing a white dress with frilled neckline, sash with gold buckle, gold necklace, a shawl with floral-patterned border over her left shoulder, her brown hair worn in ringlets and dressed with a pink rose, seated, Mrs Barneley standing to her right, wearing lilac dress with short puffed sleeves and white lace shoulder caps, sash with gold buckle, floral corsage and gauze shawl over her shoulders, her brown hair dressed in ringlets and a plaited bun, signed on the obverse and dated F. Rochard/ 1835, maple wood frame, the reverse bearing paper label inscribed ‘The Honble/ Mrs Talbot/ sitting/ Mrs Barneley/ standing/ Daughters/ of John Elwes Esq./ Colebourne Gloucestershire’, rectangular, 33.5cm (13 1/4in) high; a PORTRAIT OF MRS RIPON (NÉE MARGARET AUGUSTA ELWES) AND MISS FRANCES JUSTINA ELWES, modelled with Mrs Ripon wearing a white dress with lace bertha, a rosette of blue ribbon pinned to her breast, black, red and blue shawl around her arms, gold bracelets, and black ribbon choker, her brown hair looped around her ears, seated, Miss Elwes standing behind, wearing a white dress with lace bertha, rosette of blue ribbon pinned to her breast, two fine gold chains with jewelled cross and gold watch around her neck, her brown hair looped around her ears and dressed with spray of flowers and green leaves, signed in pencil on the obverse and dated F. Rochard/ 1848, maple wood frame, the reverse indistinctly inscribed and bearing paper label inscribed ‘Mrs Ripon/ Sitting/ Miss Elwes/ Standing/ Daughters/ of John Elwes Esq/ Colebourne. Gloucestershire’ rectangular, 35cm (13 3/4in) high; a PORTRAIT OF A LADY, wearing A green dress with frilled white collar and blue sash, her black hair curled and upswept beneath a ruffled white cap with orange spots and trimmed with blue ribbons, seated, a baby in a white smock with a blue sash and frilled white cap on her left knee, a young child wearing orange smock with blue ribbons at the shoulders on her right.
Watercolour on paper, signed on the obverse in pencil F.T.Rochard, rectangular carved gilded wood frame, oval, 22cm high (8 11/16in) high; and a PORTRAIT OF ELLEN WERGE, wearing a blue dress with frilled white pelerine collar and corsage of knotted blue ribbon, her brown hair dressed in ringlets and a bun, signed on the obverse and dated Fois Rochard 1834/ à Londres, wood frame, the reverse inscribed ‘Lady Ellen Werge/ Wife of Captain Werge/ 39th Foot/ Dorsetshires’ rectangular, 24cm (9 1/2in) high (4)
Dimensions
the largest 47cm high, 40cm wide [Overall]
Provenance
Schidlof Galleries, London, 1980; Christie's, South Kensington, 28 November 1991, lot 7; Bonhams, Oxford, Art & Antiques, 29 April 2009, lot 40 (First example)
Christie's, South Kensington, 28 November 1991, lot 8; Bonhams, Oxford, Art & Antiques, 29 April 2009, lot 113 (Second example)
Hamptons, Godalming, Surrey, 30 September 1998; Bonhams, Oxford, Art & Antiques, 29 April 2009, lot 111 (Third example)
Larry Gayne Esq., 3 February 1982; Bonhams, Oxford, Art & Antiques, 29 April 2009, lot 119 (Fourth example)
Private Collection, London, from a member of the Rochard family
Footnote
Research reveals that Ellen Werge was the sister, not the wife (as per the inscription on the reverse of the present lot), of Captain Robert Dean Werge (see lot 192). She was the third child and eldest daughter of Oswald Werge and his wife, Ellen Dean, and was born in Bombay in 1811. Seemingly she never married but the 1871 Census lists her as 'visitor' at the Cumbria home of Mrs Sarah Strickland Gwillym, the sister of the famous writer and historian, Agnes Strickland.