Elizabeth Harriet Grosvenor, Marchioness of Ormonde (1857-1928) by William Thompson Barber, c. 1876
The miniature has traditionally been identified as Frances Jane Paget, Marchioness of Ormonde (1817 – 1903), wife of John Butler, 2nd Marquess of Ormonde. However, it more closely resembles Elizabeth Harriet Grosvenor, née Leveson-Gower (1857 – 1928), who in 1876 married James Butler, 3rd Marquess of Ormonde. A photographic miniature of Elizabeth, Marchioness of Ormonde, at the same age, confirming this identity, is at Antony, Cornwall. The source for the present miniature, however, must be the miniature of the Marchioness of Ormonde, painted by Edward Tayler in the year of her marriage and exhibited RA 1876.
Barber has made much use of scratching out, in groups of four or five strokes at a time, in the hair and in the background, and the image is one of exceptional softness. William Barber was a miniaturist from Bristol, who exhibited at the RA 1876 – 85 and worked in Careggi, Florence (1894 – 1901). Inscribed on the reverse in ink: COPY OF MINIATURE by MR TAYLOR / PAINTED by W. T. BARBER and, in a separate hand, in pencil: Lady Ormonde.
Via: the Royal Collection
