GEORGE PERFECT HARDING (BRITISH born 1780-1853)

Portrait of Miss Rosamond Hester Elizabeth Croker, after Sir Thomas Lawrence

watercolour

12 x 17 cm (8 1/2 x 6 3/4 in)

The daughter of William Pennell, British Consul General in Brazil, Rosamund was adopted by John Wilson Croker (1750-1857) - politician, man of letters and friend of King George IV. The couple later married, but none of their children survived infancy, and they subsequently adopted Rosamond's younger sister (Pennell's 18th child). Croker commissioned Lawrence to paint his wife's portrait in 1827, now in the collection of the Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo, New York.