Holkham, Norfolk, UK
Church of St Withburga, Monument to Juliana Countess of Leicester, Marble, Sir Joseph Boehm, 1872
Inscribed: IN MEMORY OF JULIANA WIFE OF THOS. WILL 2nd EARL OF LEICESTER WHO DEPARTED THIS LIFE APRIL 21 1870/ BY WHOSE PIOUS CARE THIS CHURCH WAS RESTORED AND REOPENED DEC. 14 1869/ SHE IS NOT DEAD BUT SLEEPETH
Listing status: Grade II*
The tomb-chest is set in the north chapel of the chancel, part of the church rebuilt by J.K. Colling, commissioned and paid for the Countess of Leicester. She is shown asleep her left hand, with wedding ring, on a bible and her head on a pillow decorated with the Christian symbol of the vine. The portrait is based on Sir Francis Grant’s painting, at Holkham Hall from the mid 1850s, when Lady Juliana was in her thirties and is accompanied by her eldest daughter. Boehm simplified the long flowing robes and removed the bow shown at her waist in the painting, handling the folds with a classic simplicity which, like the attributes, suggest her piety and recall earlier alabaster effigies. This is also true of the sarcophagus, where the contrasting patterned squares and roundels recall early Christian models. The choice must have been deliberate in view of her restoration of the church of St Withburga. This is a unique dedication to a local East Anglian saint, who built a convent in East Dereham, but who spent time at Holkham before her death in 743 and whose body was later stolen and removed to Ely.
Juliana (1825–1870), eldest daughter of Samuel Charles Whitbread (1796–1879), brewer and astronomer, of Southill, Bedfordshire was the first wife of Thomas Coke, second earl of Leicester of Holkham (1822–1909).
Richard and Sarah Cocke, The Public Sculpture of Norfolk and Suffolk, Liverpool University Press for the Public Monuments and Sculpture Association, 2013, p. 272
Holkham, Norfolk, UK
Church of St Withburga, Monument to Juliana Countess of Leicester, Marble, Sir Joseph Boehm, 1872
Inscribed: IN MEMORY OF JULIANA WIFE OF THOS. WILL 2nd EARL OF LEICESTER WHO DEPARTED THIS LIFE APRIL 21 1870/ BY WHOSE PIOUS CARE THIS CHURCH WAS RESTORED AND REOPENED DEC. 14 1869/ SHE IS NOT DEAD BUT SLEEPETH
Listing status: Grade II*
The tomb-chest is set in the north chapel of the chancel, part of the church rebuilt by J.K. Colling, commissioned and paid for the Countess of Leicester. She is shown asleep her left hand, with wedding ring, on a bible and her head on a pillow decorated with the Christian symbol of the vine. The portrait is based on Sir Francis Grant’s painting, at Holkham Hall from the mid 1850s, when Lady Juliana was in her thirties and is accompanied by her eldest daughter. Boehm simplified the long flowing robes and removed the bow shown at her waist in the painting, handling the folds with a classic simplicity which, like the attributes, suggest her piety and recall earlier alabaster effigies. This is also true of the sarcophagus, where the contrasting patterned squares and roundels recall early Christian models. The choice must have been deliberate in view of her restoration of the church of St Withburga. This is a unique dedication to a local East Anglian saint, who built a convent in East Dereham, but who spent time at Holkham before her death in 743 and whose body was later stolen and removed to Ely.
Juliana (1825–1870), eldest daughter of Samuel Charles Whitbread (1796–1879), brewer and astronomer, of Southill, Bedfordshire was the first wife of Thomas Coke, second earl of Leicester of Holkham (1822–1909).
Richard and Sarah Cocke, The Public Sculpture of Norfolk and Suffolk, Liverpool University Press for the Public Monuments and Sculpture Association, 2013, p. 272