Sir William Boxall (1800-1879) Portrait of Rotha Quillinan, bust-length, 1832 oil on panel painting (oil painting) 170 x 125 mm This portrait shows Rotha Quillinan age approximately nine years old. Rotha Quillinan was the second daughter of William Wordsworth’s son-in-law Edward Quillinan from his first marriage to Jemima Brydges. She was born at Rydal in 1822 and Wordsworth was her godfather. Wordsworth suggested her unusual name, Rotha, naming her after the River Rothay that runs through Grasmere and Rydal on to Ambleside. Dora Wordsworth, the poet’s daughter, eventually married Edward Quillinan in 1841. Dora was close to Rotha and her sister and the inscription on the back of this portrait states that it was given to her as a gift from Quillinan. (Text from Treasures of the Wordsworth Trust, p.92:) (Rotha was Wordsworth's godchild and the younger daughter if Edward Quillinan and his first wife Jemima (nee Brydges), who died on 25 May 1822 as the result of a domestic fire. Where Dora married Quillinan in 1841 Rotha became her godchild. The artist, William Boxall, was the son of an oxfordshire exciseman. He studied in the Royal Academy schools and in Italy. Wordsworth sat to him in London before 6 April 1831, when the poet dined with him and Edward Quillinan. He was appointed director of the National Gallery in 1866.) Provenance: Gift of the Higginbotham Woods family, 1999 Exhibited: Treasures of the Worsdworth Trust, The Wordsworth Trust, 2001-3

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Reference 2001.85.2.1