Carl Gutherz or Guthers (Tennessee/Missouri, 1844-1907) oil on canvas full length portrait of Lady Dufferin, Vicereine of India, 1893. She wears the Dufferin and Ava diamond and pearl shamrock tiara and diamond star necklace (without the parure's matching earrings), along with other jewels and badges of orders, and is seated in a large gilded armchair with her feet resting on a footstool. Although this painting was executed after Lady Dufferin's departure from British India in 1888, the palm fronds behind her suggest her time there and her accomplishments as Vicereine. Signed lower right. Housed in a molded gilt wood frame. Sight: 73 in H x 41 in. W. Framed: 80 in H x 48 in W. Literature: CARL GUTHERZ: POETIC VISION AND ACADEMIC IDEALS, eds. Marilyn Masler and Marina Pacini (Memphis, TN: Memphis Brooks Museum of Art, 2009), no. 39. Lot also includes Gutherz's oil on canvas study for the portrait of Lady Dufferin. Here, she wears the complete diamond star necklace and earring parure (the earrings were not included in the final portrait). Housed in a molded gilt wood frame. Sight: 17 3/8 in. H x 10 3/8 in. W. Framed: 19 1/4 in. H x 12 3/8 in. W. Historical Note: In 1884, Lady Dufferin, the Marquess of Dufferin and Ava, also known as Hariot Georgina Hamilton-Temple-Blackwood, accompanied her husband to India when he was appointed Viceroy by Queen Victoria. At the suggestion of the Queen, she took a keen interest in the welfare of Indian women and recognized the need for improved medical care. She established the Countess of Dufferin Fund in 1885, which aimed to train female doctors and nurses and provide them with opportunities to work in India. The fund also supported the establishment of hospitals and dispensaries specifically for women. The Countess of Dufferin Fund played a significant role in improving healthcare access for women in India and paved the way for future advancements in women's medical care. The fund also helped British and Irish women enter the medical profession, providing them with opportunities for employment and career advancement. Well-known during her life, Rudyard Kipling's 1888 "The Song of the Women" commemorates her efforts as Vicereine and King George I of Greece is said to have noted that "there was no lady in Europe who could enter a room like Lady Dufferin." Today, Lady Dufferin Hospital, a women's hospital in Karachi, Pakistan, still bears her name. Artist Biography: Guthers, who was born in Switzerland, emigrated as a child to the U.S. in 1851. He lived with his family in Memphis, Tennessee, through the Civil War and then studied at the Ecole des Beaux Arts in Paris and the Academie Julian, as well as in Munich, Brussels, and Rome. In 1875 moved to St. Louis, Missouri, where he taught at Washington University and helped establish the St. Louis School and Museum of Fine Arts. Gutherz continued to take portrait commissions from Memphis, however, and even designed costumes and floats for the annual Memphis Mardi Gras. In 1884 he returned to Paris, where he studied with Gustave Boulanger and Joseph LeFevre. Here, he became associated with the Symbolist movement and produced his most successful paintings including large allegorical works, often featuring Christian imagery. Back in the U.S. he was hired to create murals for institutions including the Library of Congress, the People’s Church of St. Paul Minnesota, and the Allen County (Indiana) Courthouse. A year before his death, he produced a design for an arts and sciences pavilion which was the basis for the development of the Brooks Memorial Art Gallery, later the Memphis Brooks Museum of Art. Source: The Tennessee Encyclopedia.

Final portrait canvas has been relined and affixed to new stretcher. With extensive retouching throughout, primarily to background. See UV photography. Study in overall very good condition. With black, painted lines to lower right. Canvas has been affixed to a new stretcher, not relined. 

Deaccessioned by the Memphis Brooks Museum of Art to benefit the acquisitions fund.