Marie-Louise Pierrepont,Countess Manvers

To Thoresby in Nottinghamshire,ancestral home of the Pierrepont family,now a hotel.In the Stables an exhibition of the work of the last countess,who died in 1984 aged 95.She had trained in Paris at the Academie Julian and was clearly competent,particularly in chalk and pencil.I remember walking round the house when Sotheby’s sold the contents in 1989 and seeing many works by the countess on the walls.Some are still there in the hotel.These are usually oils and many are of the house and aspects of the huge estate.To my mind the chalk and pencil portraits are more effective.