"Henrietta Baillie" (d. 1856), by Margaret Sarah Carpenter (1793-1872)

Henrietta Baillie (d. 1856), by Margaret Sarah Carpenter

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Henrietta Baillie (d. 1856).

Margaret Sarah Carpenter (1793-1872)

c. 1845

Oil on canvas

H 91.4 x W 73.7 cm

Royal College of Physicians, London, accession no. X289

Image credit: Royal College of Physicians, London

Given by Angela Oliver, 1972

Downloaded via Art UK with thanks, under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial licence (CC BY-NC). [Click on the image to enlarge it.]

The daughter of a Scottish minister, Henrietta (née Duff) married the son of Dr Matthew Baillie, an eminent anatomist, and nephew of the even more famous physician William Hunter (hence the association with the Royal College of Physicians). Her husband, Squire of a Gloucestershire estate, was also the nephew of the author Joanna Baillie, so there is some interesting correspondence between Henrietta and Joanna, which helps to bring Henrietta and her family to life again. For example, the first of the couple's eight children, named Sophy, was born in 1836 and was her aunt Joanna's "great pet & delight," whose childhood illnesses worried her considerably (see Letters 1206). Henrietta's last child, born in 1853, was named after her mother, so would only have been a toddler when her mother died (see Slagel 36, n.7). Mention in these letters of a troublesome cough might suggest that she died from tuberculosis: "Mrs Baillie left us last saturday and set off for the Isle of Wight on monday where I hope she is now enjoying herself with her children. She seemed a good deal better for being here but still retained more of her cough than we liked & had very little strength. I hope the sea air will remove the one & restore the other" (1067; days of the week not capitalised in the original).

The tenderness in Henrietta's expression here, and the delicate refinement of her dress (with the truly remarkable filigree detail of the lace on her hair and in her collar) make this a most memorable portrait. — Jacqueline Banerjee

Bibliography

Baillie, Joanna. The Collected Letters. Edited by Judith Bailey Slagle. 2 Vols. Vol. II. Madison, NJ: Fairleigh Dickinson University Press, 1999.

Henrietta Baillie. Art UK. Web. 20 October 2024.

Slagle, Judith Bailey. Joanna Baillie: A Literary Life. Madison, NJ : Fairleigh Dickinson University Press, 2002.

Created 19 October 2024