Portrait of a Lady, Mrs William Acton of Bramford Hall, in a Silk Dress and Blue Fur-trimmed Cape C.1740; Signed Thomas Bardwell (1704-1767)

This exquisite work, painted circa 1740, formed part of the collection of family pictures and heirlooms of the Barons de Saumarez, descendants of the sitter, at their magnificent 1,400-acre manor, Shrubland Park, near Ipswich. The manor was considered amongst the finest Italianate country homes in Britain and the family held the estate for over 200 years until it was sold in 2006.

Signed by the prolific Suffolk artist, Thomas Bardwell, it is a finely depicted portrait of a beautiful young lady and a prime example of his work. His graceful portraits were very much admired at the time and today his work is represented in many museums and grand country houses throughout Britain.

Our portrait, depicts a subject about thirty years of age, and on the basis of clothing and hairstyle, it was painted around 1740. Mr Kirby Talley Jr., in his writing for the Walpole Society (Thomas Bardwell of Bungay, Artist and Author 1704-1767 with a Checklist of Works', Walpole Society, Vol. XLVI, 1976-78) identified the sitter as the wife of William Acton of Bramford Hall (c.1684-1744) and recorded it in the Saumarez collection, descendants of the sitter at their magnificent family home, Shrubland Park, Suffolk. Our painting was thought to be the companion portrait to that of her husband, William Acton. The year before William's portrait, he was High Sherrif for Suffolk, a plausible event to commission a portrait. The couple are believed to have had a daughter, Isabella Acton, (born after 1707 and died before 1744) - it is plausible that she is in fact the subject of our portrait.

William Acton was the second son of John Acton of Bramford Hall (1650-1695) and either his first wife Isabel Buxton or his second wife Elizabeth Lamb (1654-1727). Bramford Hall passed through several generations and was still held by his descendants in the mid-twentieth century, Jane Anne Vere-Broke, Lady de Saumarez at Shrubland Park (who had also inherited Broke Hall).

For Shrubland is one of those rare entities, a complete country estate, owned by the same family for more than 200 years. It was sold to Sir William Fowle Middleton, 1st Baronet (1748-1829) in 1795. He married Harriet Acton. Sir William’s father had just returned to Suffolk from South Carolina when he inherited Crowfield Hall (at Middleton Place near Charleston, the Middleton’s had created what remains one of the largest and grandest houses and gardens on the eastern seaboard of America.

It descended to Jane Ann Broke (1847-1933), who married James St Vincent, 4th Baron de Saumarez (1843-1937) in 1882, thus becoming The Right Honorable Jane Ann, Baroness de Saumarez and then descended to the 7th Baron de Saumarez before it was sold to pay death duties in 2006 (our portrait lot 279, Sotheby’s London, held on the premises, on Sept 19-21). The sale was described as the most important property sale in East Anglia in a generation: “In almost every other European country it would be called a palace”.

Presented in a beautiful gilded period frame.

Thomas Bardwell, was born, probably at Worlingworth, Suffolk, in 1704, son of John Bardwell, a farmer at Worlingworth. Thomas established himself as a decorative painter at Bungay, Suffolk and by 1732 had a thriving business, employing at least one apprentice, a business that he handed over to his younger brother Robert in 1738 so he could focus on portrait painting. By 1740 his business was thriving as he painted much of the local clientele. He may also have worked briefly in London, as 1740–1741, he produced the portraits John Campbell, Duke of Argyll, and David Garrick, newly acclaimed as Richard III at Goodman's Fields. In 1752 he journeyed to Scotland, via Yorkshire, painting several portraits and some decorative work. Thomas was back in the south by the end of 1753 and from 1759 to the end of his life thrived as a portraitist in Norwich.

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