This portrait by Hugh Douglas Hamilton (1739-1808) of Robert King, 2nd Earl of Kingston and Caroline, nee Fitzgerald, Countess of Kingston is at Christie’s online right now. It is lot 81 of an online auction of Old Master and British Drawings including property from the Cornelia Bessie Estate at Christie’s, New York until January 28.
The Earl of Kingston is a title in the Peerage of Ireland. Robert, 2nd Earl of Kingston (1753-1799), was the M.P. for County Cork. He and his wife Caroline (1754-1823) hired the author and educational philosopher Mary Wollstonecraft (1759-1797) as governess to their daughters at Mitchelstown Castle – she had a particular influence on Margaret, their eldest daughter, who became a well-known writer and political activist. Wollstonecraft, now regarded as a founding feminist philosopher, died 11 days after giving birth to her second daughter, the writer Mary Shelley, author of Frankenstein. The painting is estimated at $12,000-18,000.