Margaret Bingham, Countess of Lucan (1740 – 27 February 1814)
[Ernest Radford, "Bingham, Margaret, Countess of Lucan (c. 1740–1814)", rev. V. Remington, ODNB, Oxford University Press, 200]
Retrieved 4 October 2014
/ref> was an English painter, copyist and poet, whose art was much admired by Horace Walpole. Her pseudonymous ''Verses on the Present State of Ireland'' made a strong protest against Britain's treatment of the country.
Personal life
Margaret Bingham was born Margaret Smyth in Devon
Devon ( , historically known as Devonshire , ) is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in South West England. The most populous settlement in Devon is the city of Plymouth, followed by Devon's county town, the city of Exeter. Devo ...
, England, the younger of the two daughters of James Smith MP of Canons' Leigh, Devon, and his wife Grace.Earl of Lucan
Earl of Lucan is a title which has been created twice in the Peerage of Ireland for related families.
History
Patrick Sarsfield was one of the senior commanders of James VII & II (deposed in 1688) in battles in Ireland with William of ...
.[ She died in 1814 at St James's Place in London and was survived by five children:][
* Lady Lavinia Bingham, who married George Spencer, 2nd Earl Spencer and had issue,
*Lady Eleanor Margaret Bingham,
*Lady Louisa Bingham,
*Lady Anne Bingham, and
* Hon. Richard Bingham, who succeeded his father in the title.
]
Work
As an artist, Bingham often copied the work of others, as well as painting portrait miniatures.[ Her work was collected in the United Kingdom and in France. In Paris she was given access to the Palais-Royal to copy pieces by the artists on display there, which were owned by the Duke of Orléans.
Bingham's foremost work was to supply miniatures and illuminations for a five-volume edition of Shakespeare's historical plays, for the library at Althorp, Northamptonshire. This took 16 years for her to complete. She also painted ]portrait
A portrait is a painting, photograph, sculpture, or other artistic representation of a person, in which the face and its expressions are predominant. The intent is to display the likeness, personality, and even the mood of the person. For this r ...
s, still lifes, and landscapes.
Bingham was admired by Horace Walpole, who makes several flattering allusions to her in his letters. In his ''Anecdotes'' he attributes to her "a genius that almost depreciates those masters rom whom she copied when we consider that they spent their lives in attaining perfection."[
As a writer, Lady Lucan published in about 1778 ''Verses on the Present State of Ireland'', a strong poetic protest against Britain's treatment of Ireland. It was published in ]Dublin
Dublin (; , or ) is the capital and largest city of Ireland. On a bay at the mouth of the River Liffey, it is in the province of Leinster, bordered on the south by the Dublin Mountains, a part of the Wicklow Mountains range. At the 2016 c ...
under the pseudonym Lady L–n.[ A bibliography of her writings appeared in 1990.Free PDF download. Retrieved 11 October 2021.]
/ref>
References
External links
on card, inscribed and signed, c. 1777, after a 1775 original by Sir Joshua Reynolds. From Elle Shushan Fine Portrait Miniatures
{{DEFAULTSORT:Bingham, Margaret
1740 births
1814 deaths
18th-century English painters
18th-century English poets
18th-century English women writers
18th-century English writers
18th-century English women artists
19th-century English painters
19th-century English women artists
Artists from Devon
English women painters
Lucan
Painters from London
Portrait miniaturists
Writers from Devon
Bingham family (Ireland)