john singer sargent lady astor national trust painting hogarth picture light

Hogarth Petworth Picture Light over 'A Portrait Of Lady Astor' National Trust, by John Singer Sargent.

Hogarth illuminates A John Singer Sargent

The painting hangs at Cliveden House:

Cliveden House (pronounced /ˈklɪvdən/) is an Italianate mansion and estate in Buckinghamshire, on the border with Berkshire. It crowns an outlying ridge of the Chiltern Hills by the hilltop village of Taplow, just 2 miles (3.2 km) from the riverside town of Maidenhead. Set on banks 40 metres (130 ft) above the River Thames, its grounds slope down to the river. The site has been home to an earl, three countesses, two dukes, a Prince of Wales and the Viscounts Astor.

As home of Nancy Astor, the house was the meeting place of the Cliveden set of the 1920s and '30s — a group of political intellectuals. Later, during the 1960s, it became the setting for key events of the notorious Profumo Affair. During the 1970s, it was occupied by Stanford University, which used it as an overseas campus. Today owned by the National Trust, the house is leased as a five-star hotel run by London & Regional Properties.

Cliveden means "valley among cliffs"[1] and refers to the dene (valley) which cuts through part of the estate, east of the house. Cliveden has been spelled differently over the centuries, some of the variations being Cliffden, Clifden, Cliefden and Clyveden.[2] The 375 acres (152 ha) gardens and woodlands are open to the public, together with parts of the house on certain days. There have been three houses on this site: the first, built in 1666, burned down in 1795 and the second house (1824) was also destroyed by fire, in 1849. The present Grade I listed house was built in 1851 by the architect Charles Barry for George Sutherland-Leveson-Gower, 2nd Duke of Sutherland.

About Lady Astor:

Nancy Witcher Langhorne Astor, Viscountess Astor, CH (19 May 1879 – 2 May 1964) was the first female Member of Parliament to take her seat.

She was an American citizen who moved to England at age 26. She made a second marriage to Waldorf Astor as a young woman in England. After he succeeded to the peerage and entered the House of Lords, she entered politics, in 1919 winning his former seat in Plymouth and becoming the first woman to sit as a Member of Parliament (MP) in the House of Commons.[Note 1] Her first husband was an American citizen, Robert Gould Shaw II, and they divorced. She served in Parliament as a member of the Conservative Party for Plymouth Sutton until 1945, when she was persuaded to step down.

The Hall showing the fireplace and portrait of Nancy Astor
The Hall showing the fireplace and portrait of Nancy Astor
06Jun/2017 Category: News