Lady Sitwell

A hand-coloured carte-de-visite portrait of a sitter identified verso as ‘Lady Sitwell,' seen here dressed for a fancy-dress party or for a spot of amateur dramatics.

Given the apparent age of the sitter and the date of the portrait, the likeliest candidate for a fuller identification is the wife of Sir Sitwell Reresby Sitwell, 3rd Baronet (1820–1862). On 20 August 1857 he married Louisa Hely-Hutchinson, daughter of Colonel Henry Hely-Hutchinson, a veteran of the Battle of Waterloo. She was also a niece of the 3rd Earl of Donoughmore.

Lady Sitwell was therefore the grandmother of the celebrated literary siblings Edith, Sacheverell and Osbert Sitwell.

She died on 31 October 1911 at Balcombe Tower, Branksome Park, Bournemouth. She left an estate valued at £8882.

‘The death of Louisa Lady Sitwell, mother of Sir George R. Sitwell, Bart., which occurred at Bournemouth on Tuesday night, has been received with very deep regret. The deceased lady, who had attained the advanced age of 83 years, was a daughter and co-heir of the late Colonel the Hon. Henry Hely-Hutchinson, and sister of the late Lady Hanmer, who did at Scarborough last May. Lady Sitwell married, in 1975, Sir Reresby Sitwell and after his death, which too place in 1862, spent a part of every year at Scarborough, where she was well-known and greatly esteemed. The deceased lady, who died in Branksome Park, will be buried tomorrow afternoon at Wimbourne-road Cemetery, Bournemouth’ (Bournemouth Daily Echo, 2 November 1911).

Photographed by Friedrich Hertel of Weimar in Germany.

The print has received the attentions of Miss Elizabeth Bond of Southsea, acknowledged by no less a figure than Lewis Carroll [Charles Dodgson] as 'the best photographic colourist living.' A printed paper label verso identifies her as the artist.