Introduction: placing faces in the country housePart 1: A walk around the house1. The topography of the conversation piece: a walk around Wanstead – Kate Retford2. Life in the library – Susie West3. Marble, memory and theatre: portraiture and the sculpture gallery at Chatsworth – Alison YarringtonPART 2: Women’s space?4. Dirty dancing at Knole: portraits of Giovanna Baccelli and the performance of ‘Public Intimacy’ – Gill Perry5. ‘Necessary, usefull, easy and delightfull’; the production and display of pastel portraits in the English country house – Ruth Kenny6. Georgiana at Althorp: Spencer family portraits 1755–1783 – Emma BarkerPART 3: Imperial Designs7. Commemorating Captain Cook in the country estate – Harriet Guest8. Framing Sir Francis: Lady Anne Stanhope and the corruption of civic masculinity – Jordan Vibert9. The Waterloo Chamber before the Battle of Waterloo – Desmond Shawe TaylorBibliographyIndex

English country houses are full of portraits of family members, Kings and Queens, politicians, military figures and other well-known characters. We find these portraits in serried ranks in long galleries, placed high above the bookshelves in libraries, prominently displayed over fireplaces and in private apartments. They range from full-length paintings in oil by renowned artists to intimate pastels by amateurs; from busts displayed within the house to monuments located in the grounds.This collection of essays by scholars including Alison Yarrington, Gill Perry, Kate Retford, Harriet Guest, Emma Barker and Desmond Shawe-Taylor explores the rich but understudied relationship between English country houses and the portraits they contain. Moving between residences as diverse as Stowe, Althorp, the Vache, Chatsworth, Knole and Windsor Castle, it unpicks the significance of various spaces – the closet, the gallery, the library – and the ways in which portraiture interacted with those environments. It explores questions around gender, display and ownership, investigating narratives of family and kinship in portraits of women including Georgiana, Duchess of Devonshire, as well as issues of celebrity and scandal in the case of Giovanna Baccelli, mistress of the 3rd Duke of Dorset. The essays in the final section turn to the representation of great military figures, heroes such as Captain Cook and the Duke of Wellington, and examine the complex ties between families, their houses, and imperial conflict.This book will be essential reading for all those interested in the long eighteenth century especially those studying portraiture, country houses and heritage, gender and imperialism.

"the book provides valuable information that increases the reader's understanding of the crucial place portraits occupy in the political and familial role of the country house"(Hugh Belsey, Art Newspaper, 01/07/2014)