Mrs P. Bedingfeld
A Tale for Our Time

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Special Features > Mrs P. Bedingfeld: A Tale for Our Time

So there I was in the Norwich Castle Museum. It was the summer of 1997; I was young and impressionable with distinctly more hair. Perusing the many splendid paintings in the museum I came across one that completely took my breath away. I stood for the best part of an hour examing every nuance of the picture. I was mesmerised. I had never seen anything quite like it. It was a portrait of a woman called Mrs Philip Bedingfeld and it hung facing a far less inspiring portrait of her husband. The artist was a man named Frederick Sandys. Now I hadn't heard of Sandys, and I certainly hadn't her of the subject of the picture, but that didn't alter the effect the picture had on me.

I wasn't in the museum alone and so I pointed out the piece to my good chum Paul (aka Salamar Russ). He'd never seen anything quite like it either. But where I was enchanted, he considered it the freakiest portrait he'd ever seen in his life. There was something about the eyes, he said, something that you would wake you up screaming about at three in the morning. Poppycock, I thought, but I must confess that the only person I have found who doesn't share Paul's interpretation of the piece is me.

So click on the thumbnail below and take a good gander. Make up your own mind and let me know. Do you think it's enchanting or freaky? I'll count up the votes and publish them on this page when I get enough.

As time passed I became more and more obsessed with finding out more about this lovely lady. I became an historical stalker, in you will. Years passed and despaired at finding out any more information. I even went back to the Norwich Castle Museum in 2002 only to discover the painting was no longer on display! But I work in a library, and discovered that a book had been published: a catalogue raisonné of all Sandys's work. I placed a request, the book arrived and there in full colour was the Mrs Bedingfeld's picture. The first time I had seen it in five years. Also in the book was the following, enlightening information about the lady in question:

The following taken from: Betty ELEZEA, Frederick Sandys 1829-1904: A Catalogue Raisonné, Antique Collectors' Club, Suffolk (2001), p120.

1859 insc. "AFS [monogram]/1859" (lower left). Oil on wood panel. 16¾ × 17¾.

Half length, the head and body turned to the left, and the eyes turned toward the spectator. Centre-parted smooth hair, bound together at the nape of the neck and crowned with a wreath of bay leaves. The dress of white silk with a v-shaped "bertha" bodice trimmed with blond lace. Gold chain around neck with a pendant of charms(?). Behind the figure, foliage and flowers to the lower left and the centre right. In the background, a grey stone parapet with a pair of colonnettes, and beyond, a distant landscape with a winding river and wooded hills to the left, and high-walled buildings and a tower on a hill to the righ.

Adelaide Mary Bedingfeld (b. 1831) was the wife of Philip Bedingfeld, LLD, JP, of Ditchingham Hall, Norfolk and Fleming's Hall, Suffolk. She was the daughter of the Rev. Edgar Rust d'Eye of Abbot's Hall, and rector of Drinkstone, both in Suffolk. Her eldest son, Philip Henniker Bosard Bedingfeld was born in 1859.¹ According to information passed down in the family, Sandys was hoping to show his portrait at the Royal Academy, "...but the family would not agree to its being shown."²

The landscape in the background seems to be a specific one and suggests Italy because of the walled town on a hill with a campanile. This part of the picture, along with the parapet, is decidedly weak compared to the figure, which is not surprising as Sandys was never in Italy. It was probably assembled from various sources which I have been unable to identify, perhaps provided by the Bedingfelds, and probably had some significance to them - perhaps a honeymoon in Italy.

There is an original label from the back of the panel which has been preserved with the correspondence connected with the sale of the pricutre, which states, "A.M. Bedingfeld / wife of / P. Bedingfeld LLD / taken when inbetween 27 and / 28 years of age viz. in 1859 - / by F. Sandys (Norwich).³

Exhibitions in chronological order: Brighton/Sheffield, 1974, 82, pl.53. Norwich, Caslte Museum, Family and Friends, 1992, 84, pl.18.

Provenance (history of ownership): Philip Bedingfeld, and by descent to his younger son Fleming Augustis O'Brien Bedingfeld (1862 - mid1930s). Sold by his widow Mrs Frances Bedinfeld in 1942 to the Norwich Castle Museum with the help of the Walker Bequest Fund (2.26.942).

Genealogical information from Walter Rye, Norfolk Families, 1913, p38, and Edward Walford, The County Families of the United Kingdom, 1884, p69.
Information from letters to the Curator from Mrs Frances Bedingfeld, dated from 29 April 1940 to 16 March 1942. The quotation is taken from a letter of 19 January 1942. Art Dept. Archives, Norwich Castle Museum.
Art Dept. Archives, Norwich Castle Museum.

So there you have it.... Adelaide Mary Bedingfeld, born in 1831. I have no further information about her at the moment. If anyone out there wants to send me some then I'll pop in on this part of the website. Now check out that big version of the picture and make up your own mind.

Mrs P. Bedingfeld A Tale for Our Time

Mrs P. Bedingfeld
A Tale for Our Time