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| Frances Browne, Mrs. John Douglas, by Thomas Gainsborough, 1783-4. |
Waddesdon Manor is a country house in the village of Waddesdon, Buckinghamshire, England. Built between 1874 and 1889 for Baron Ferdinand de Rothschild, the house was designed by the architect Gabriel-Hippolyte Destailleur in the manner of the great Renaissance châteaux of the Loire Valley; this sort of Neo-Renaissance pastiche was so popular with members of the Rothschild family that it came to be known as le goût Rothschild.
Situated on a hilltop overlooking Waddesdon village, the house - built to the most modern standards of the time, despite its historicist appearance - is set in formal gardens and an English landscape park. Waddesdon is home to extensive collections of French 18th-century tapestries, boiseries, furniture and ceramics, English and Dutch paintings and Renaissance works of art. The last member of the Rothschild family to own Waddesdon was James de Rothschild. He bequeathed the house and its contents to the National Trust in 1957. Today, following an extensive restoration, it is administered by a Rothschild charitable trust that is overseen by Jacob Rothschild, 4th Baron Rothschild.
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| Mrs. Abington as the comic muse, by Sir Joshua Reynolds, 1764-8 and 1772-3. |
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| George, Prince of Wales, later George IV, by Thomas Gainsborough, 1781. |
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| Emma Assheton-Smith, Mrs. Robert Scott of Danesfield, by George Romney, 1786. |
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| Lady Anne Luttrell, Duchess of Cumberland, by Sir Joshua Reynolds, 1772-3. |
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| Dorothea Bland, 'Mrs. Jordan' as 'Peggy' in 'The Country Girl', by George Romney, 1786-87. |
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| Mary Darby, Mrs. Thomas Robinson 'Perdita', by Sir Joshua Reynolds, 1782. |
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| Lady Jane Tollemache, Lady John Halliday, by Sir Joshua Reynolds, 1778-9. |
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| Francis Nicholls 'The Pink Boy', by Thomas Gainsborough, 1782. |
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| Joanna Leigh, Mrs. Richard Bennett Lloyd, inscribing a tree, by Sir Joshua Reynolds, 1775-6. |
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| Mary Darby, Mrs. Thomas Robinson 'Perdita', by Thomas Gainsborough, 1781. |
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| Captain John Hayes St. Leger, by Sir Joshua Reynolds, 1778. |
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| Sophia Charlotte Digby, Lady Sheffield, by Thomas Gainsborough, 1785-6. |
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| Emma Hart, Lady Hamilton as Calypso, by George Romney, circa 1791-92. |
I'll have one of each please, including the house, thanks.
ReplyDeleteMrs Jordan was for many years the mistress of William IV, he abandoned her to marry Adelaide in the scramble to provide a legitimate heir after the death of Princess Charlotte.
ReplyDeleteAfter twenty years and ten children; the former Duke of Clarence was what we might easily call a louse!
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