Studio RT Ltd

Description

We are delighted to offer this large and handsome portrait oil on canvas by the Irish artist and portrait painter Elizabeth Smyth Guinness, who has signed the painting in the lower left hand corner and dated it 1888. The painting depicts a three quarter length seated portrait of a Lieutenant in the Inns of Court Rifle Volunteer Corps. He is bare headed and is holding his pillbox cap, together with a pair of tan coloured leather gloves in his right hand, while his left is holding his sword. The artist, Miss Guinness, has executed the detail and colouring of his uniform and accoutrements with consummate accuracy.

The uniform of this Corps, ICRV for short, is grey with red facings. His rank is denoted by the one Bath Star or pip on his epaulettes, as per the regulations brought in in 1881, which changed in 1902 to two pips for a lieutenant. His brown leather cross belt has a metal whistle attached by a double chain to a lion's head nearer to his shoulder and, in between the two is the badge of the ICRV, above a strung bugle. The motto of the Regiment is Salus Populi Suprema Lex, which means 'The welfare of the people should be the supreme law', which is very apt, considdering that the majority of its members were from the legal profession. The sitter is sporting a handlebar moustache and has dark hair. As yet he is unknown, but further research may reveal his identity. On the back of the stretcher the artist has written 'Miss Guinness ?A Fielding Road, To M or Mr. Castile'.

From 1584-1859, the four Inns of Court, Lincoln's Inn, Gray's Inn, Inner Temple Inn and Middle Temple Inn, raised bands of trained men from their ranks of barristers, notaries, clerks etc., in times of national crisis, but when each crisis was over, they were disbanded. In 1803 George III gave them the name of 'The Devil's Own', which they hold to this day. However, continuous history of the regiment dates from 1859, when the Inns of Court volunteers were formed as a unit for producing officers. In 1881 it became a battalian of the Rifle Brigade. It was numbered the 23rd Middlesex in 1859, but renumbered in 1880 as the 14th Middlesex.

In the present day, the Inns of Court & City Yeomanry is a British Army unit formed through the amalgamation of The Inns of Court Regiment (The Devil's Own) and The City of London Yeomanry (Rough Riders) in 1961. Its lineage is maintained by 68 (Inns of Court & City Yeomanry) Signal Squadron and the Band of the Royal Yeomanry (Inns of Court & City Yeomanry). The ICCY has its own museum at Lincoln's Inn.

Elizabeth Smyth Guinness was born on 28th November 1846 in Clontarf, Dublin in Ireland. She was the sixth child of a physician by the name of Arthur Grattan Guinness 1813-1897, who was an orthodox physician who converted to homeopathy and moved his family to Exeter in 1848, where Elizabeth is listed in the Census of 1851. Her father, along with two of his Guinness cousins, were three of the original 41 founder members of the Irish Homeopathy society and there is much information about him online. She was also the great granddaughter of Arthur Guinness the founder of the brewing family. She was a figure, genre and portrait painter, who flourished and exhibited between 1873 and 1895. According to the Census records, she never married and in the records for 1881 and 1891, she shared an address in Fulham and Hammersmith respectively with another lady artist by the name of Augusta Mary Reid (1842-1931).

We can find no listings for either of them in the Census of 1901 or 1911, but Augusta is on the electoral roll from 1920-1931 in Bray, near Maidenhead, Berkshire. Elizabeth Smyth Guinness died in 1927 and Augusta in 1931. They are both buried in the Churchyard of St. Michael's, Bray.

Elizabeth is listed in The Dictionary of British Artists (Collectors' Club), The Dictionary of Victorian Painters by Christopher Wood and The Dictionary of Portrait Painters in Britain. There are two of her works in the National Collection which are held by Girton College, Cambridge and can be viewed at ArtUK.org under her name, although they call her Elizabeth Sarah Guinness with the dates 1850-1934, which is incorrect.

The painting is framed in a 3 3/4" gilded wooden frame and gilt slip. It will be supplied wired and ready to hang.

Image size: 32 1/2" x 27 5/8" - 85.1cm x 70.15cm

Frame size: 40 3/8" x 35 1/8" - 102.5cm x 89.2cm

Medium: Oils on canvas

Condition: Very good. The canvas has been relined in recent memory and is now in good, clean condition with no paint loss, obvious repairs or restoration with evidence of past craquelure. The frame and slip are in good condition with some wear consistent with age. As there is nothing to see on the reverse of the canvas, we have not wasted one of our six allowed photographs on it, however, we would be willing to make a photo of the back or any other area of the painting available, if required.