Completed East of England and The Midlands: Artists and Subjects, Portraits: British 19th C 25 Could the artist be Edward Fancourt?

Jacinto Regalado also submitted a query on this portrait:

‘Assuming this is signed Fancourt and dated 1845, I think it could be attributed to the portrait painter Edward Fancourt, whose year of birth is variably given as c.1802 or 1808 and who reportedly died in 1849. Two other works on Art UK (including a copy after van Dyck) and a portrait which was engraved would appear to be by the same artist. Note that all three portraits (see below) have plain dark backgrounds:

https://bit.ly/3CoNb8V
https://bit.ly/3EybIuk
https://bit.ly/2XCcTrX
https://bit.ly/39gUgft

An E. Fancourt exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1820 and 1821 from a 31 Hoxton Square address, the same address given for E. Fancourt in the print after his portrait linked above, which was also published by him. This suggests the c.1802 year of birth is more likely than 1808. Perhaps a public discussion could reveal more information about the artist.’

The collection was going to check its files in 2021. I will follow that up.

Edward Fancourt was born on the 22nd July 1801 in Southwark, Surrey and was baptised on the 18th August of that same year at Saint Saviour's Church, Southwark. He was the son and the second of the six children of the Rev. Thomas Fancourt (1768-1857) and his wife Jane Ball Collins (1771-1843). On the 26th December 1827 he was married at Knightwick, Worcester, to Anne Wilberforce Bell (1808-1867), which whom, between 1831 and 1844, he had eight children.

In May of 1822, while living with his parents at 31, Hoxton Square, London, Fancourt was awarded the Large Silver Medal by the Society of Arts for "an original portrait in oil".

He was educated at the Royal Academy schools where, in 1824, as a pupil of one of either Richard (1774–1849) or his half-brother Henry Sass (1788–1844), he won a Silver Medal for the best drawing from the antique. In December of 1825, still as a pupil of "Mr. Sass", he won another Silver Medal, this time for best copy made in oil at the Painting School.

Fancourt exhibited twice at the RA, in 1820, as catalogue no. 749, with a 'Portrait of a Young Lady', and in 1821, from 31, Hoxton Square, as catalogue no. 341, with a 'Portrait of a Lady in her 82nd Year'.

He died at Hoxton Square, London, on the 1st March 1849 and was buried at St Leonard's, Shoreditch. His death notice in the Saint James's Chronicle of Tuesday 6th March 1849 read:

"March 1, at the house of his father, the Rev. T. Fancourt, Hoxton Square, Mr. E. Fancourt, Artist, after a few days illness."

A mezzotint of the Rev. Watts Wilkinson, engraved by Thomas Goff Lupton, after a painting by Edward Fancourt, was published by Fancourt from his address at 31, Hoxton Square:

http://tinyurl.com/4m49jvbw

Also, from Mary Kirby's "Letters from My Life" (1888), an interesting description of the artist's character, and of his "remarkably handsome" wife, can be read here:

http://tinyurl.com/4rr25pxh

If this is a portrait from 1845 of The Hon. Mrs E. Mills, then she is Elizabeth Frances Barrington (Sedgefield, Durham, 18th October 1811 - Hertford, Hertfordshire, 26th July 1886) and she would be 34 years old in this portrait. Elizabeth was the daughter of Viscount George Barrington and his wife Elizabeth Adair. She married, as his second wife, the Reverend Thomas Mills on the 13th December 1836 (see attached, from the Suffolk Chronicle of Saturday 17th December 1836).

It should be noted on the attached composite, of this discussion's portrait and that of 'The Hon. Mrs. Mills' from the NPG's collection, that the sitter in both images is wearing a wedding ring of similar broad design, so if the etching is of one and the same person as our portrait then it would date from after 1836.

A history of the Barrington family can be read here:

https://landedfamilies.blogspot.com/2020/03/409-barrington-of-beckett-house.html

From it is the following:

'The Hon. Elizabeth Frances Barrington (1811-86), born 18 October and baptised at Sedgefield, 17 November 1811; married, 13 December 1836 at Shrivenham, as his second wife, Rev. Thomas Mills (1791-1879), chaplain in ordinary to Queen Victoria and rector of Stutton (Suffk), but had no issue; lived latterly at Hill House, Hatfield (Herts); died 26 July 1886; will proved 21 August 1886 (effects £18,874)'

The NPG engraving is probably a proof before letters. The same engraving, apparently the published version with lettering, is here http://tinyurl.com/3fh6j29h , and gives the engraver, the painter (one T. Sampson) and the date of publication (1842). The source painting, of course, could be and probably was earlier, most likely 1830s (the engraved sitter clearly looks younger than our lady).

While speculative, this 1863 photo of a Mrs. Mills at the NPG may be of the same woman: http://tinyurl.com/mpdmupzr

Is it signed or dated? If not, what is the argument for attributing it to Fancourt? I don't see a strong connection stylistically to Fancourt's other works.

Alana, that question is being pursued.

More about the Fancourt family can be seen here:

http://www.guarlfordparish.uk/remember_church_interior.htm

If Alana Duggan's stylistic comment is comparing the 1827 portrait of the the Reverend Joseph Wolff to this 1845 portrait of the Hon. Mrs. E. Mills, Fancourt could easily have improved his skill as a painter during the intervening eighteen years:

https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/object/P_1859-0709-1531

https://artuk.org/discover/artworks/reverend-joseph-wolff-17951862-121979/search/2024--keyword:fancourt--referrer:global-search

Kieran, thank you for the biographical details on Edward Fancourt (submitted separately), which have been added to the artist page.

The print of the portrait of Wolff was published in 1827, but the source painting could be earlier.

The entry for Wolff's portrait https://bit.ly/3EybIuk should be under Edward Fancourt, not E. Fancourt, and his dates should be corrected.

The entry for the Rubens copy https://bit.ly/2XCcTrX should give Fancourt's year of birth as 1801, not c. 1802.

Sorry, I meant the van Dyck copy https://bit.ly/2XCcTrX

The curator, Emma Roodhouse, had another close look at the painting yesterday and there is no signature on the front. It’s secured to the wall so she was unable to get it down to look at the back. She will look at the history file, but the accession register information is currently inaccessible.

I ordered Elizabeth’s will.

Here is another photo of Elizabeth at the NPG (NPG Ax50235).

https://www.npg.org.uk/collections/search/portrait/mw245332/Hon-Elizabeth-Frances-Mills-ne-Barrington?

NPG Ax26235 is also a photo of Elizabeth but there is no image on the NPG website.

https://www.npg.org.uk/collections/search/portrait/mw157137/Hon-Elizabeth-Frances-Mills-ne-Barrington?

Based on the print after it https://bit.ly/3CoNb8V , Fancourt's portrait of Watts Wilkinson was clearly more accomplished than his portrait of Joseph Wolff. The print of Wilkinson's portrait is not dated, but it may have been published c. 1840, when he died.

Good find, Marcie. See the attached composite.

Fancourt was the son of a clergyman, which no doubt relates to the apparent preponderance of clerical sitters for his portraits, which would include Mrs Mills (who was married to a clergyman).

Another engraving, from 1847, of Joseph 'Anglicanus' Hierosol, the Anglican Bishop of Jerusalem, after a portrait by Edward Fancourt, can be seen here:

https://archive.org/details/jewsnineteenthc00ayergoog/page/n5/mode/2up

In 1848, the engraver William Holl produced a print of Edward Berkeley Portman, 1st Viscount Portman (1799-1888) after a portrait by Fancourt, in the year before the artist's death:

http://tinyurl.com/bdd7vhwb

During the 1824/1825 session of the Society of Arts, Fancourt was awarded another large Silver Medal, for a portrait of himself:

http://tinyurl.com/5e79e8c4

After pecuniary legacies and expenses for funeral expenses and debts, Elizabeth left the residue of her estate to be divided equally between the Honourable Harriet Octavia Legge and the Honourable Wilhelmina Brooke ("wife of John Townshend Brooke Esquire"). Her will was dated the 2nd November 1879 and it had four codicils.

The Hon. Harriet Octavia Legge and the Hon. Wilhelmina Brooke were Elizabeth's nieces, the two youngest children of the seven children of her older sister the Hon. Frances Barrington (1802-1849)

The Barrington family's relationships can be seen here:

http://www.cracroftspeerage.co.uk/barrington1720.htm#BARRINGTON_1720_5