Lot 183: Hugh Barron , London circa 1747 - 1791 Portrait of a Lady, said to be Susanna, Mrs. Baron Bedingfield of Ditchingham Hall, Norfolk oil on canvas

Three-quarter length, seated in a landscape, wearing a cream dress and a blue cloak, reading a book oil on canvas

measurements note 124 by 100 cm., 49 by 39½ in.

By descent from the sitter to Philip H. B. Bedingfeld;
Fisher Blakeslee Esq., New York;
Mrs. George Byrne, New York;
Sir Robert Dashwood Bt., Duns Tew Manor, Oxford;
His sale Christie's London, 12th July 1946, lot. 145 as 'F. Cotes, R.A.' (bt. Francis for £126)

This portrait can be dated stylistically to the 1770s and was erroneously catalogued in 1946 as Miss de Strafford [sic] of Blatherwycke Park, Northamptonshire, owing to an inscription on the back of the picture. The last Stafford to have lived at Blatherwycke died in 1723, from which time the house passed through the family of her husband, Henry O'Brien of Stonewell, County Clare. It is most likely that this painting is in fact a portrait of her granddaughter, Susanna, daughter of Donatus O'Brien of Blatherwycke Park, who married the Reverend Bacon Bedingfield, of Ditchingham Hall on 19υth June 1770.