The Williams Family Portraiture

Duke’s are proud and delighted to offer within the sale of the contents of Bridehead the Williams family portrait group that has long existed on the walls of the dining room, predominantly unchanged from those as listed in the early Inventory of the Contents of The Mansion Bridehead by Messrs Phillips Son & Neale. This group reflects the individual personalities of the sitters as well as the overarching story of the family.

To be offered together are the portraits of Robert Williams (1735-1814), the first of four consecutive of that name, and his wife Jane Chassereau painted by Ramsay Richard Reinagle (1775-1862), where Robert is depicted seated with a letter in his hand, papers, books and quills on a table to his side. Robert began his working life as an apprentice cabinet maker and went on to become ‘the general partner of a bank, the controlling owner of several East India Ships, an East India Company Director, a Minister of Parliament, and the owner of two large estates’, including Bridehead (Sanders, pg.144). This leads Stephen Farrel in The History of Parliament to describe him as a ‘self-made’ man. His portrait is thus staged to declare his capacity as a businessman and his pride in his life’s accomplishments. Standing in contrast is the portrait of Jane, portrayed as a reserved older woman lace-making. Jane is supposed to have met Robert whilst he was an apprentice upholder and she was working as an upholsterer (Holden et al, pg.6). She is perhaps for this reason depicted with the tools of her own craft, or otherwise, to highlight in turn that she had been afforded such luxuries as leisurely pursuits. Her appearance is demure and is representative of the long and happy life she lived, surviving to nearly 102 years of age. Ramsey Richard Reinagle, the chosen portraitist, was a highly regarded contemporary artist. From an early age he had shown a certain genius for painting; he exhibited his first picture at the Royal Academy, at the age of twelve. In 1805 he joined the Society of Painters in Water Colours and served as its President from 1808 to 1812. He was elected associate of the Royal Academy in 1814 and a full academician in 1823.

Jane Chassereau was the youngest daughter of Anne and Francis (b.1698), who we see shown in lot 123, painted by the circle of Enoch Seeman (1694- 1744). Francis was born in Niort, Deux-Sèvres, France and he and his children were of Huguenot Heritage. Francis was therefore one of around 200,000 French Huguenots who left France to settle in non-Catholic Europe and avoid persecution. He brought with him, as many did, a useful and skilled trade as a fan-maker and stationer (Sanders, pg.150). He and his wife are painted in an earlier style but are both similarly modelled in rich attire with proud features.

The portrait of Robert Williams (1767-1847) shows the son of Robert Senior in an almost mirrored setting, with identifying family features and seated in a lush interior. Robert the second was forced to sell their estate at Moor Park to the Grosvenor family during the economic turmoil of 1828 after which point the family moved more permanently to Bridehead, in their ancestral county of Dorset. Despite inheriting a fortune and a career in banking from his father, Robert Junior preferred his life in politics. Perhaps for these reasons his portrait remains unadorned with the instruments of his father’s trade.

The magnificent and substantial portrait of Robert’s wife Frances ‘Fanny’ Turner with her two sons, Robert and William, takes centre stage in the dining room. Standing at an impressive 241cm high it is without doubt one of Reinagle’s most inspiring works. Frances married Robert in 1794 and his devotion to her and his two young sons is reflected in the scale of this composition. The regal stature of this portrait is appropriate to the character of Frances, as it is through her friendship with Princess Amelia we can see how the Williams family had a relationship with the Royal Court. In letters written to ‘Fanny’, held in the Dorset History Centre, Princess Amelia discusses how her father, King George III, enjoyed pears from Frances’ family estate of Moor Park. Moreover, two ships in the Williams family fleet were named Princess Amelia (Sanders, pg. 179). Robert’s success in business and politics together with the support of his wife had elevated the family to the realms of aristocracy. Reinagle’s study incorporates three portraits with a landscape setting to the background; the artists training in both portraiture and landscapes enables him to present works in this fashion to very high acclaim, see Christie’s, 11th May 2005, lot 30.

The eldest son of Robert and Frances, Robert the third (1811-1890), is depicted in a portrait by George Richmond (1809-1896), together with a companion portrait of his second wife Lady Emily Maria Melville. George Richmond’s works were renowned and much sought after, one of his most famous being a study of William Wilberforce composed 1833. There is a connection between Wilberforce and the Williams family of Bridehead, as a mounted letter signed by Wilberforce reveals. Perhaps it is through this connection that the introduction to Richmond’s works were made. The portrait of William Williams (1774-1839), younger son of Robert and Jane Williams, is likewise painted by one of the most important artists of the time, Henry William Pickergill (1782-1875). Among his famous sitters are Lord Nelson, the Duke of Wellington, Robert Peel and William Wordsworth. This is again testament to the standing of the family. We see a change in style as we move out of the 19th and towards the 20th century, and the portraits of Rosa Simes, Lady Williams, wife of the fourth Robert Williams (1848-1943) and Sir Philip Francis Cunningham William, the youngest of Robert the fourths eight children, and are both reflective of this. The dignified portraits both show sitters comfortable in their positions as the family has long maintained its role in society.

Through this series of paintings by artists working at the height of their craft we can see the rise and growth of the Williams family and learn from each the legacy of their individuality. This auction offers a rare opportunity to acquire from their original setting a family group of such significance.

Literature:
Dorset History Centre, Dorset. Williams of Bridehead, Littlebredy, Archive
fonds. D-WIB 17371924 Fanny Williams sub-series. D-WIB/C/1-6 1802-
1817.
Stephen Farrell, The History of Parliament: the House of Commons 1820 –
1830, ed. D.R. Fisher (London: Cambridge University Press, The History of
Parliament Trust, 2009), Ref. Vols. 1820 – 1832.
Kenneth Holden et. al., Williams Deacon’s 1771 – 1970 (Manchester:
McCorquodale & Co. Ltd., 1971), 6–7.
Sanders, Steven, ‘The Evolution of Eighteenth-Century