Biographies: Collectors, Dealers, Family, Fellow Artists, Patrons

Amelia Long, Lady Farnborough (1772 - 1837)

Amelia Long, Lady Farnborough (1772–1837), was the daughter of the noted collector Sir Abraham Hume (1749–1838) and the wife of Sir Charles Long, 1st Baron Farnborough (1760–1838), a Treasury official who later became Paymaster-General and also acted as an unofficial art adviser to the Prince of Wales. At some point around 1799, Amelia Long took lessons from Girtin, who was said to have ‘told everything to his favourite pupil’, and his influence is certainly strongly felt in her works at this date (Roget, 1891, p.91). Long exhibited at the Royal Academy – as ‘Mrs C. Long’ – between 1807 and 1822, when the influence of her new teacher, Henry Edridge (1768–1821), came to dominate. The Longs also collected works by Girtin and at least four are recorded as coming from their collection, including views of Durham Cathedral (TG1079), Caernarfon Castle (TG1310) and Kelso Abbey (TG1717). Paul Oppé (1878–1957) also records that Durham Castle and Cathedral, from below the Weir (TG1077) came from the same collection of a descendant of the Longs as the Caernarfon view. Long copied a number of Girtin’s works, including his view of Kirkstall Abbey (see TG1636 figure 1), and she is said to have welcomed the artist to her home, Bromley Hill House in Kent. Around 1800 Girtin certainly made a series of sketches of sites in the area, from which a number of watercolours were produced, including The Old Cottage, Widmore, near Bromley (TG1749), but it seems that the Longs did not move there until later in 1801.