On display in the guest bedrooms for this year's exhibition, House of Stories: Tales from the Chatsworth Library, is a portrait of Lady Caroline Lamb, painted in 1813 by the British artist, Thomas Phillips.
Lady Caroline Lamb (1785-1828), affectionately known as 'Caro', was the daughter of Henrietta Ponsonby, Countess of Bessborough, sister to Georgiana, Duchess of Devonshire. She was also the much-adored cousin of the 6th Duke, who is recorded in the Chatsworth accounts as having paid forty guineas for this portrait on 2 May 1814.
Lady Caroline was a talented writer and poet. A sketchbook, now known as 'Mourning Book for Georgiana', also on display in the exhibition, is early evidence of this talent. Thought to have been produced around 1806, it contains poetry, prose, paintings, and an unfinished (and unpublished) Gothic novel.
Today, however, Lady Caroline is most often remembered for her relationship with the poet Lord Byron (1788-1824). At its most intense between March and August 1812, the affair had a profound effect on them both, with reputational and creative repercussions that continued for years afterwards.
In this portrait, Lady Caroline is depicted as a page boy bearing a platter of grapes beside a spaniel dog; an unconventional composition for the period, and perhaps one that surprised the artist himself, as Lady Caroline remarked, “What a prude I think Phillips".
Her decision to be portrayed by this artist in this outfit and in this pose was far from whimsical. While the portrait conveys her theatricality, adventurous spirit, and delight at performance, it may also contain a coded message to Byron.
A free spirit
Frustrated by the lack of freedom afforded to 'respectable’ women, Lady Caroline frequently exploited her slight frame and boyish appearance by disguising herself as a page boy and moving about undetected. She is believed to have attended the House of Commons in disguise to hear her husband, William Lamb (later Lord Melbourne), deliver the loyal address to the King at the opening of Parliament on 19 December 1806; at the time, women were not welcomed as spectators in the Strangers Gallery.
During her relationship with Byron, she again adopted her page boy disguise to visit his apartments. Robert Dallas, family friend and advisor to Byron, later describes her as “…a fair faced, delicate boy of thirteen or fourteen years old…dressed in a scarlet hussar jacket and pantaloons…He had light hair curling about his face, and held a feathered fancy hat in his hand…”
These performances blurred the boundaries between theatre and life, granting Lady Caroline a daring freedom she would otherwise have been denied. They also allowed both her and Byron to live out their literary fantasies.
Well read
Their relationship was one of intellectual attraction, as well as physical – a genuine ‘meeting of minds’. It was characterised by obsessive correspondence filled with coded symbolism, often referencing historical texts and mythology. This not only demonstrates how well-read Lady Caroline was, but that she was Byron’s intellectual equal.
It was upon reading a proof of Byron's semi-autobiographical verse, Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage, that Lady Caroline's fascination with the poet began. Like many admirers, she wrote to him but remained anonymous. In her second letter, she reportedly included a stanza in the style of Childe Harold. This caught Byron’s attention.
In ‘Recollections of the Life of Lord Byron’, Robert Dallas described him as “so enraptured, so intoxicated, that his time and thoughts were almost entirely devoted to reading her letters and answering them.”
Byron described Lady Caroline as “a little volcano” and “the cleverest, most agreeable, absurd, amiable, perplexing, dangerous, fascinating little being that lives now or ought to have lived 2000 years ago.”
Lady Caroline may also have felt a connection to Byron through the inclusion of a page boy in Childe Harold's Pilgrimage, who sings with youthful innocence to world-weary Harold (Byron) as he departs England's shores; ‘Come hither, hither, my little page…’ is the opening line of Stanza 3.
In a letter written at the end of their physical relationship, Lady Caroline sent Byron a lock of body hair with the message:
"Caroline Byron
August, 9th, 1812,
next to Thyrsa Dearest & most faithful
God bless you own love
ricordati di Biondetta
From your wild Antelope"
The phrase 'ricordati di Biondetta', meaning 'remember Biondetta' in Italian, refers to Jacques Cazotte's 1772 French novella, Le Diable Amoureux (The Devil in Love). In the story, the devil falls in love with a young nobleman and takes the form of a beautiful shape-shifting spirit called Biondetta, who disguises herself as a page boy to remain close to him and attempt to win his heart.
Is Lady Caroline playing the role of Biondetta in this painting?
Partner portraits
Just a year earlier, in 1813, Thomas Phillips had completed a portrait of Byron in traditional Albanian robes, which is now one of the most celebrated images of the poet. Although the portrait was not on public display until the Royal Academy Summer Exhibition in May 1814, Lady Caroline is very likely to have known of it or even seen it.
It may well have influenced the commission of her own portrait and inspired her decision to be depicted as a page boy, bearing grapes (a Bacchic symbol of decadence and vice, and the fleeting nature of time and earthly delights), and looked upon by a Spaniel (both Byron and Lady Caroline loved dogs, and Lady Caroline bred a black spaniel cross; in early European folklore, dogs – described as black spaniels – were sometimes connected to the devil and the supernatural).
Before the Royal Academy exhibition, it is believed that Phillips displayed the two portraits side by side in his studio, perhaps inviting them to be read as companion pieces.
Seen in this context, this portrait of Lady Caroline Lamb could become more than an eccentric theatrical performance. It could be a deeply personal message to Byron: a reminder of their physical and intellectual relationship, their shared literary imagination, and the fantasy world they created together.
View the painting
Thomas Phillips's portrait of Lady Caroline Lamb is on display, along with the Mourning Book for Georgiana, and a copy of her Gothic revenge novel 'Glenarvon', in House of Stories: Tales from the Chatsworth Library.
The exhibition forms part of the visitor route in the house, and is available until 4 October.
Further reading:
If you'd like to read more about Lady Caroline Lamb, scholars recommend these sources:
Lady Caroline Lamb: A Free Spirit' by Amanda Foreman
Byron: A Portrait by Leslie A Marchand
Caro: Lady Caroline Lamb website
Lady Caroline Lamb: A Biography by Paul Douglass
The Whole Disgraceful Truth: Selected Letters of Lady Caroline Lamb by Paul Douglass
