Croxteth Hall & Country Park Web site

Portraits

Before photography was common place, family portraits were the only way to capture a likeness of the sitter. How the subject is presented in the picture offers a tantalising glimpse of their character and interests. Paintings hanging in the Hall consist of family portraits and rural landscapes, illustrations of their way of life with hunting pictures taking precedence.

Among the many imposing portraits of Viscounts and Earls there is, in the middle of the balcony over the main staircase, a small portrait of the 7th and last Countess, Josephine, painted by James Gunn in the 1940s. Josephine looks very poised and elegant in her picture, not surprising as she was a model for the designer Worth. An American by birth, Mrs Josephine Armstrong Gwynne, nicknamed 'foxy' (probably because of her red hair), married Hugh, the Earl of Sefton in 1941. Lord Sefton was Lord in waiting to Edward VIII and Lady Sefton was great friends with Wallis Simpson. The two couples enjoyed holidaying together in the south of France. 

Foxy's portrait is a companion to the picture of Hugh, the 7th and last Earl of Sefton during his Mayoral year 1944-5, also painted by James Gunn. Around Lord Sefton's neck is the magnificent mayoral chain with the city's coat of arms surrounded by 365 diamonds, representing the days in the full year of office.

The Earl and Countess married quite late in life and did not have any children. The Earl's younger brother Cecil Richard, shown in a portrait on the opposite wall as a midshipman, was painted by Philip de Laszlo in 1915. Sadly Cecil was killed in action aboard H.M.S. Lion in the battle of Jutland a year later in 1916.

There are many other paintings on display throughout the display rooms of Croxteth Hall.

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