Provenance

Charles Compton Cavendish, 1st baron Chesham

British, died 1863

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A pale-skinned woman wearing a cream-white dress stands in front of a shadowy landscape in this vertical portrait painting. Facing us, the woman looks directly out with dark gray eyes under gently curving brows. She has a somewhat wide nose, slightly smiling, bow-shaped lips, flushed cheeks, and a pointed chin. Her brown hair is pulled back and up into a loose, tall style. A palm-sized medallion hanging from a gold chain falls low on her chest. The low neckline of the dress, which is pulled around the torso like a wrap dress, is lined in gold. The train of the long skirt is pinned between her crossed ankles and pools behind her feet. She wears white, sandal-inspired shoes wrapped with blue lines. A coat with voluminous sleeves in the same deep white color as the dress falls heavily from her shoulders. She leans her right elbow, to our left, against a squared stone or ledge, and her other hand is planted on her hip. A grassy lawn stretches back to trees framing a muted blue sky in the background behind her. Sunlight glows on the horizon in the distance behind her shoulders, but the rest of the landscape falls into deep shadow.
Sir Joshua Reynolds, Lady Elizabeth Compton, 1780-1782, oil on canvas, Andrew W. Mellon Collection, 1937.1.97

Lady Elizabeth Compton

Sir Joshua Reynolds · 1780-1782 · oil on canvas ·  Accession ID  1937.1.97