Radnorshire Fine Arts Ltd

Description

Charlotte, Lady Owen of Orielton.
Oil on canvas laid on board.
Unsigned.
Framed and glazed.
Provenance By descent from the Jordan's of Pigeonsford Mansion Llangrannog, Cardiganshire.

This portrait is that of Charlotte, Lady Owen of Orielton near Pembroke. She was born Charlotte Lewis Phillips of Llwyncrwn, Llangynin, Carmarthenshire and created a sensation when she and John Lord (later Sir John Owen) ran away together to Gretna Green to be married in 1800. She was not a rich heiress at all Llwyncrwn was a minor place and she had two brothers.

John Lord (born 1776) was the lucky heir to the ancient and large Orielton estate. His mother was an Owen and he was the nearest relation when Sir Hugh Owen died in 1809 without issue – the last of the old line. He changed his name to Owen and pursued a political career which brought him a baronetcy in 1813. Charlotte died in 1829 without issue and Sir John remarried again and had more success with heirs.

Sir John was both impetuous (hence his elopement with Charlotte) and a spendthrift, eventually bankrupting the Orielton estate. As witness to that, he had Charlotte painted full length by Sir Thomas Lawrence in the 1820s. Hence we know what she looked like Our portrait works very well as a younger version of Lawrence’s sitter however no firm evidence has been found to attribute the work to this artist.

The painting has been very much cut down and the scale of the head suggests that originally it was a seated half or three quarter length. It may have been reduced in scale to fit the smaller house it descended to, Pigeonsford in Ceredigion, and she was only the step mother to Jordan family there (who had married a daughter by Sir John’s second wife), so commanded no great loyalty.

A label attatched to the back of the picture bears the name of Admiral Herbert Willes Hope 1878-1968. He was the 8th child of Ellen Evelyn Elizabeth Jordan and Rear Admiral Charles Webley Hope. Ellen E E Jordan was the only child of Ellen Owen (daughter of Charlotte-Lady Owen, and John Owen.) Ellen Owen married in 1831 to G B J Jordon who lived at Pigeonsford Mansion.