Title: The Parlour, The Vicarage

Height 39 cm, width 48 cm
Oil on canvas
Provenance: gift of W.H Collingridge, 1900
Museum No. OLNCN 1

The painting depicts William Cowper seated in the parlour at The Vicarage with Mrs Unwin and Lady Hesketh on either side.

In a letter to Cowper's cousin Theadora in 1786 Lady Hesketh writes:

'Our Friend delights in a large chair, there are two of the latter comforts in my parlour. I am sorry to say that he and I always spread ourselves out in them leaving poor Mrs Unwin to find all comfort she can in a smaller one...'

Lady Hesketh took up residence at Weston Lodge during Cowper's final mental collapse in 1793, but was unable to convince Mrs Unwin that he should be placed under the care of Dr Francis Willis (the physician credited with curing the madness of King George III).

Following the death of Cowper, she provided William Hayley with much of the material for his biography. An acquaintance, Fanny Burney, described her as:

'... well informed, well bred, sensible ... somewhat too precise and stiff, but otherwise agreeable'.

Diary and Letters of Madame D'Arblay, 1.445