The Ladies of Llangollen
LEIGHTON, Lady (Born Mary Parker, daughter of Thomas Netherton Parker of Sweeney Hall, Oswestry, she became Lady Leighton on marrying Sir Baldwin Leighton, 7th baronet, of Loton, Salop.)
LANE, Richard James (Born at Berkeley Castle, Gloucestershire, into an artistic family. His mother was a niece of Thomas Gainsborough and his father a prebendary of Hereford Cathedral. At sixteen, he was apprenticed to line engraver Charles Heath. Lane worked as an engraver for several years before turning his attention to the lithographic method of printmaking. He first exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1824 and was elected an associate engraver three years later. Lane specialised in portraiture; he produced hundreds of portraits of royalty, actors, artists and other notable society members. Queen Victoria appointed him royal lithographer in 1837.)
Lady Eleanor Butler and Sarah Ponsonby were women of aristocratic Anglo-Irish descent who overcame family opposition and scandalized contemporary society to elope together. They came to Plas Newydd, Clwyd, in 1779 and lived there for over 50 years. They adopted male dress, signed their correspondence jointly and refused to spend a single night away from home. Their mutual devotion and idyllic way of life became part of contemporary mythology. They received visits from numerous celebrities, including the Duke of Wellington, William Wordsworth and Walter Scott. It is not known when the amateur artist Lady Leighton made the painting on which this lithograph is based. It was said that neither lady would sit for a portrait, but each wished for that of the other.
Creation/Production
Date: 19th century
Measurements
Techniques
lithograph on paper
lithograph
Planographic printing
prints
Fine Art - works on paper
