ELIZABETH AT WEMMERGILL.

See also: Elizabeth at Wemmergill, Sketch for and Elizabeth Williamson, Portrait of.

Image: Tate.

  • Title(s): Elizabeth at Wemmergill (this web site; Royal Academy catalogue, 1906; The Times, 12 Apr 1908); Manchester Art Gallery, 1923 [catalogue]); Miss Elizabeth Williamson on a Pony (current [Oct 2025] title at the Tate); Elizabeth Williamson at Wemmergill (Royal Academy, 1934); Elizabeth Williamson (Royal Academy Illustrated, 1934).
  • Description: A young girl, face turned toward the viewer and smiling, astride a pony, in an open rural setting with a partly cloudy sky.
  • Media: Oil on canvas (Tate).
  • Dimensions: “support: 1682 × 1312 mm frame: 1995 × 1590 × 100 mm” (Tate).
  • Signature/date/other text: “Annie L Swynnerton / 1906” bottom right.
  • History:
    • 1906 – “Annie L Swynnerton / 1906” bottom right.
    • 1906 – Exhibited Royal Academy, no. 76 “Elizabeth at Wemmergill” (exhibition catalogue); “Elizabeth at Wemmergill … Small girl in a blue dress riding astride a Shetland pony” (Academy Notes, 1906); “1906” (Tate).
    • 1908 – Exhibited Franco-British Exhibition, “Elizabeth at Wemmergill” (according to The Times, 12 Aug 1908, p6, but not listed in the exhibition catalogue). [Have read through entire 1908 catalogue and not listed. JR]
    • 1910 – Exhibited Grafton Galleries, American Art News 16 Apr, “The current exhibition of the Women’s International Art Club at the Grafton galleries … [includes] the vigorous portrait of “Elizabeth Williamson at Wemmergill”.
    • 1910 – Exhibited Manchester Academy Autumn Exhibition (Manchester City News, 15 Oct 1910, p5).
    • 1923 – Exhibited Manchester Art Gallery – Paintings by Mrs Swynnerton, no. 48. (Catalogue.)
    • 1929 – “Presented by F. Howard 1939″ (Tate).
    • 1934 – Exhibited Royal Academy of Arts, no 132, “Elizabeth Williamson at Wemmergill / The late Annie L. Swynnerton, A.” (Exhibition catalogue, 1934.)
    • 2022 – Exhibited Tate Britain, “Spotlights: Annie Swynnerton” exhibition, Nov 2022.
  • Location: Tate.

“Elizabeth Williamson was the great-granddaughter of Mrs. Charles Hunter, owner of the Villa Barbaro in Venice, friend of Henry James and Edith Wharton. Mrs. Hunter was a collector and philanthropist of the arts, and an intimate friend of Sargent who painted her. It was Sargent who introduced Mrs. Hunter to Mancini, and she commissioned him the portrait of her nephew Elisabeth. Elizabeth’s mother, Phyllis, was painted by Sargent in 1902. The painting is now kept at Tate” (www.deartibus.it).

Elizabeth was also painted by Italian artist Antonio Mancini – someone who Annie knew in Rome – in 1908.

Portrait of Elizabeth and Charles Hedworth Williamson with Dog, by Antonio Mancini, c. 1907. (Philadelphia museum Museum of Art.)

Elizabeth Williamson, by Antonio Mancini (Invaluable).

Image in Royal Academy Illustrated showing greater contrast in some area of the work.

Thanks to Grant Waters for the Royal Academy Illustrated image.

Page last updated 5 Jun 2025.