The Alpine Traveller, Portrait of Emily St. Clare

The Alpine Traveller, Portrait of Emily St. Clare

RDS_treasures_26_Northcote_Alpine Traveller.jpeg

Portrait of Emily St. Clare, British stage-actress and long-term paramour of Sir John Fleming Leicester, 1st Baron de Tabley (1762-1827), politician and patron of the arts. The subject depicted full length, side-saddle on a mule, in three-quarter profile, directed right, gazing front; wearing a white, Empire-waist gown with white sash, a green, cropped jacket with three-quarter length sleeve and ermine trim, a red cloak draped back from her shoulders, a brown, fur stole, elbow-length, buff-coloured gloves and a green gypsy-hat with green-ribbon chinstraps; the mule tacked with red bridle with a red pompom fixed to the crownpiece, a pendant-type horse brass and two red tassels hanging from the browband and two red tassels hanging from the nose band, a red, high-cantle saddle and red-fringed breast collar with three brass bells, and four shoes with turned-up toeclips; St. Clare’s right hand clutching her windswept hat onto her head, her left hand gripping the rear cantle of the saddle; to the left, a rearing, white dog with wolf collar; to the right, behind St. Clare, a male mountain guide leading a panniered mule up a steep incline; set in a rocky landscape against a pink-hued, clouded sky; signed Jas. Northcote Picx 1802 on the breast collar the panniered mule.

RDS Treasures Collection

Copyright RDS Library & Archives. Publication, transmission or display is prohibited without formal written approval of the RDS Library & Archives.

RDS Library & Archives

Painting

Ca.1800-1806

Oil on canvas

289 x 190.5 cm