Anna Tonelli (née Nistri)

Pastel over traces of pencil, signed in pen and ink on backboard: Anna Tonelli/fece in Londra/1794, inscribed on labels attached to backboard with details of sitters and its provenance

Oval, in the original frame

25 x 30 cm; 9 ¾ x 11 5/8 inches

Provenance
Richard Curzon-Howe, 1st Earl Howe (1796-1870)

Lady de la Zouche, Hagley Hall, Rugeley, Staffordshire (according to a label on reverse of frame);

Edward Curzon, 6th Earl Howe of Gopsall Park and Penn House (1906-1984), Buckinghamshire;

Thence by family descent until 2023

Literature
N. Jeffares, Dictionary of Pastellists before 1800, online, J.722.1373

The charmingly drawn sitters are the young children of the Hon. Penn Assheton Curzon (1757-1797) and Lady Sophia Charlotte Howe, Baroness Howe of Langar (1762-1835). George Augustus William Curzon (1788-1805) died aged 16 and is buried in Penn, Buckinghamshire where he shares a memorial in the church of the Holy Trinity, Penn, with his parents. His younger sister Marianne (1790-1820) was also buried at Penn.

This branch of the Curzon family had houses at Penn House, near Amersham in Buckinghamshire, and Hagley Hall at Rugeley in Staffordshire, near Cannock Chase.