Marmion Edward Ferrers (1813-1884): 'The Squire's Evening Walk'

Rebecca Dulcibella Orpen Ferrers, later Mrs Edward Henege Dering (1830 – 1923). Oil painting on canvas, Marmion Edward Ferrers (1813-1884) 'The Squire's Evening Walk' by Rebecca Dulcibella Orpen (1830-1923), inscribed and signed: R. Ferrers. A coat of arms is painted at top right. A portrait of the artist's first husband standing full-length on a path beside the moat at Baddesley Clinton, the house seen behind him to the right. He is turned slightly towards the left and looks out at the spectator. He wears a brown jacket with plus fours, black stockings and black shoes with silver buckles. A black velvet cape is arranged around his shoulders and he wears a black, wide-brimmed hat above brown hair and a beard with a long moustache. He holds a cane in his right hand and under his left arm. There is a mooring post in the left foreground and a large tree on the path behind the sitter which spreads its branches into the sky above. The sky is darkening overhead and there is a reddish glow in the upper window of the gatehouse. Another portrait of the sitter, 'The Squire's Walk' (See 343144), is very similar in setting and costume Son of Edward Ferrers (1790-1830) and Lady Harriet Townshend (d.1845) the daughter of George Townshend, 16th Baron Ferrers of Chartley, 2nd Marquess Townshend and Earl of Leicester of Tamworth Castle; married Rebecca Dulcibella Orpen (1830-1923) as her first husband. They were joined at Baddesley Clinton by Edward Heneage Dering (1826-1892) and his wife Georgiana, Lady Chatterton (1806-1876) the widow of Sir William Chatterton (1794-1855), and the life of the four friends, known to each other as 'The Quartet' and their obsessive interest in the history of the house, is attested by the numerous paintings of them which were done by Dulcibella. After Marmion Edward's death, in 1885 she married Edward Dering, by then a widower. Baddesley Clinton, Warwickshire (Accredited Museum)