Frances Emilia Crofton Explained

Frances Emilia Crofton
Birth Name:Frances Emilia Dunn
Birth Date:1822
Birth Place:Waterford, Ireland
Death Date:23 October 1910 (aged 88)
Death Place:Dunmore, County Waterford, Ireland
Nationality:English, Irish
Notable Works:Eight Views (1854), a bound collection of eight lithographs after paintings by Crofton
Style:Picturesque
Spouse:William Crofton (1813–1886) RN MD JP

Frances Emilia Crofton née Dunn (1822 – 23 October 1910), known professionally as Mrs William Crofton, was an Anglo-Irish landscape painter of the picturesque style who flourished in the mid-19th century. In 1854 she published Eight Views, a folio edition of lithograph prints of her original landscape paintings of Britain and Ireland, to be sold for charitable purposes. These sets of eight prints were purchased by various bishops, members of the aristocracy and others, and some are now in public collections. She married Anglo-Irish landowner William Crofton, a naval surgeon and justice of the peace, and lived for the rest of her life in Cheltenham, Gloucestershire and at Lakefield, a mansion with a large estate in County Leitrim, Ireland.

Background

Frances Emilia Dunn (Waterford 1822 – Dunmore 23 October 1910),[1] [2] was known to her family as Fanny.[3] She was the daughter of Nicholas James Cuthbert Dunn RN (1785–1858)[4] and his wife Frances Elizabeth (1794–1872).[5] [6] Two of her brothers, Montagu Buccleugh and William James, were Naval lieutenants. On 30 March 1848 she married William Crofton (1813 – 23 May 1886), RN, MD, JP,[6] [7] at St Mary's Church, Pembroke.[8] [9] He had been an assistant surgeon on HMS Royal Adelaide, and was the second son of Duke Crofton, JP, DL. When her husband died in 1886, he left over £20,000, including the couple's houses and contents at Lakefield and Cheltenham, and the Lakefield estate.[10] [11] [12]

Crofton married into the politically complex situation of Anglo-Irish sectarianism. In 1902, at the time of the accession of Edward VII, she presided over the "enthusiastic" celebrations organised for her family's estate workers at Lakefield in Ireland, and was congratulated for that. On the same occasion her nephew, Captain Duke Crofton, proposed a toast to the health of the new king, but "in doing so referred to the offensive terms of the Coronation Oath to His Majesty's Catholic subjects".[13] Half a century before that, she had published a volume of pictures in aid of a charity whose intention was to "preserve the Protestantism of the orphans of mixed marriages".[14]

In Cheltenham Crofton supported charities for the poor. In 1870 she was a patron of amateur concerts in aid of the Female Orphan Asylum and the Local Poor, in Cheltenham.[15] [16]

When young, Crofton was described by the Wexford Independent newspaper as "amiable and accomplished".[7] In her old age the Leitrim Advertiser said she was "venerable and highly respected".[13]

Homes in England and Ireland

Crofton and her husband lived in both Britain and Ireland,[11] [17] travelling regularly between the two.[18] In England they lived at Montagu Villa, 1 Clarendon Villas, Cheltenham, Gloucestershire,[19] where Frances Emilia Crofton's parents lived between 1849 and 1860,[20] [21] and Frances and William Crofton lived between 1862 and 1910.[22] [23] Frances and William Crofton's Irish home was Lakefield, a mansion with an estate in Mohill, County Leitrim, Ireland.[24] The house was built between 1791 and 1798, and its lands were part of the Crofton Mohill estate. The Crofton family owned it until 1931 when it was sold to the Irish Land Commission, after which it became a ruin.[25] [26]

Artwork

Crofton's professional name was Mrs William Crofton. She is known for a single work only: a set of lithograph copies of her own original landscape paintings of Britain and Ireland. The whereabouts of her original paintings is unknown. In 1855, she donated £51 to the County Leitrim Protestant Orphan Society. This was the proceeds of the sale of "eight views taken by that lady": a subscriber edition of bound volumes containing a set of eight lithographs after landscape pictures by Crofton.[27] [28] A Dublin bookseller Penelope Gibson has said, "The plates are in striking detail showing scenery chiefly of the Irish country side, castles, abbeys and ruins".[29]

Commentary on the style of the Eight Views (1854)

Although beautiful, the style of the Eight Views might have appeared to be fifty years out of date by 1854. The subscribers' list suggests that by the age of 32 years Crofton possessed a strong group of Protestant Establishment contacts. The list includes the bishops of St Asaph, Cashel and Waterford, Killaloe, Peterborough, Ripon, Winchester and other clergy, titled personages and military officers, besides members of the middle classes. It follows that the accepted and morally-uplifting artistic style previously promoted by the Royal Academy would be appropriate to gain and hold the support of such a group. If the Eight Views of 1854 are representative of Crofton's preferred style, then it is possible that she and perhaps her subscribers might have favoured the older picturesque and repoussoir style of painted landscapes as a matter of taste.

Publication

Details from three views

Collections

Crofton in culture

Further research

Notes and References

  1. News: Births, marriages and deaths . 24 December 2020 . Gloucestershire Echo . British Newspaper Archive. subscription . 27 October 1910 . 3 col.8.
  2. News: Deaths . 24 December 2020 . Dublin Daily Express . British Newspaper Archive. subscription . 28 October 1910 . 1 col.1.
  3. News: Wills and bequests . 24 December 2020 . Illustrated London News . British Newspaper Archive. subscription . 13 November 1886 . 19 col.1.
  4. Deaths Mar 1858 Dunn Nicholas James Cuthbert Cheltenham 6a 320
  5. Deaths Mar 1872 Dunn Frances Elizabeth 78 Cheltenham 6a 283
  6. Dunn, Nicholas James Cuthbert . 317.
  7. News: Marriages . 24 December 2020 . Wexford Independent . British Newspaper Archive. subscription . 5 April 1848 . 3 col.2.
  8. Marriages Mar 1848 Dunn Frances Emilia Pembroke and Crofton William XXVI 777
  9. News: Marriages . 27 December 2020 . Illustrated London News . British Newspaper Archive . subscription . 8 April 1848 . 14 col.3.
  10. News: Wills and bequests . 24 December 2020 . Aberdeen Evening Express . British Newspaper Archive. subscription . 12 November 1886 . 2 col.3.
  11. News: Recently proved wills . 24 December 2020 . St James's Gazette . British Newspaper Archive. subscription . 12 November 1886 . 12 col.2.
  12. News: Wills and bequests . 27 December 2020 . Illustrated London News . British Newspaper Archive . subscription . 13 November 1886 . 19 col.1.
  13. News: Local and general notes, local coronation rejoicings . 24 December 2020 . Leitrim Advertiser . British Newspaper Archive. subscription . 14 August 1902 . 2 col.6.
  14. Web site: Cooper . June . Opposition and support, 1850–98 . manchesterhive.com . Manchester University Press . 24 December 2020 . 1 February 2015 .
  15. News: An amateur concert . 24 December 2020 . Cheltenham Examiner . British Newspaper Archive. subscription . 16 March 1870 . 4 col.2.
  16. News: An amateur concert in aid of the funds of the Female Orphan Asylum . 24 December 2020 . Cheltenham Looker-On . 1 col.2 . British Newspaper Archive. subscription . 12 March 1870.
  17. News: Deaths . 27 December 2020 . Cheltenham Looker-On . 18 col.1. British Newspaper Archive. subscription . 29 October 1910.
  18. News: Arrivals and departures . 24 December 2020 . Cheltenham Looker-On . British Newspaper Archive. subscription . 15 October 1864 . 10 col.1.
  19. News: Cheltenham arrivals . 24 December 2020 . Cheltenham Journal and Gloucestershire Fashionable Weekly Gazette . British Newspaper Archive. subscription . 22 October 1864 . 4 col.4.
  20. Cheltenham Annuaire street directory 1849–1860
  21. England Census 1851
  22. Cheltenham Annuaire street directory 1862–1910
  23. England Census 1871–1901
  24. News: Deaths . 24 December 2020 . Stroud Journal . British Newspaper Archive. subscription . 29 May 1886 . 5 col.6.
  25. Web site: Landed estates database: house Lakefield . nuigalway.ie . NUI Galway . 28 December 2020.
  26. Book: Griffin . David . The Vanishing Country Houses of Ireland . 1 January 1989 . Irish Architectural Archive . Ireland . 978-0948018084.
  27. News: County Leitrim Protestant Orphan Society. 24 December 2020 . Roscommon & Leitrim Gazette . British Newspaper Archive. subscription . 21 July 1855 . 2 col.3.
  28. Book: Cooper . June . The Protestant Orphan Society and its social significance in Ireland 1828–1940 . 1 February 2015 . Manchester University Press . 9781847799869 . 27 December 2020.
  29. Web site: Gibson . Penelope . Rare old books, section 24 . docplayer.net . De Burca Rare Books . 27 December 2020 . 2018.
  30. Web site: Eight Views, for the Benefit of the County Leitrim Protestant Orphan Society. From the Original Drawings by Mrs. William Crofton . bonhams.com . Bonhams . 27 December 2020 . 27 November 2012.
  31. Web site: Monastery on Innisfallen Island and Ross Castle, Killarney W.L. Walton, lith.; from a drawing by Mrs. William Crofton. . catalogue.nli.ie . National Library of Ireland catalogue . 27 December 2020.
  32. Web site: Eight views for the benefit of the County Leitrim Protestant Orphan Society.. digital.library.villanova.edu . Villanova University . 28 December 2020.
  33. Web site: After Crofton, Mrs William (fl.1854) RCIN 702735 . rct.uk . Royal Collection Trust . 30 December 2020.
  34. Web site: Crofton . Frances Emilia . Eight views for the benefit of the County Leitrim Protestant Orphan Society . digital.library.villanova.edu . Villanova University . 24 December 2020 . 2 January 1854.
  35. Web site: Pembroke Castle, South Wales . casgliadywerin.cymru/ . People's Collection, Wales . 26 December 2020.
  36. Web site: Pembroke Castle, South Wales . discover.library.wales . National Library of Wales . 27 December 2020.
  37. Book: Sothebys 1980 Irish Silver, Paintings, Glass, Antiquities . 12 May 1980 . Sothebys . Ireland . 28 December 2020.

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