Lady Elizabeth Compton

1780-1782

Sir Joshua Reynolds

Artist, British, 1723 - 1792

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.

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Artwork overview

  • Medium

    oil on canvas

  • Credit Line

    Andrew W. Mellon Collection

  • Dimensions

    overall: 240 x 149 cm (94 1/2 x 58 11/16 in.)

  • Accession

    1937.1.97

Artwork history & notes

Provenance

Painted for the sitter's husband, Lord George Cavendish [1754-1934], of Keighley; by descent to John Compton Cavendish, 4th Baron Chesham [1894-1952]. (M. Knoedler & Co., London), from whose New York branch it was purchased October 1928 by Andrew W. Mellon, Pittsburgh and Washington, D.C.; deeded December 1934 to The A.W. Mellon Educational and Charitable Trust, Pittsburgh; gift 1937 to NGA.

Associated Names

Exhibition History

1782

  • Royal Academy of Arts, London, 1782, no. 204, as Portrait of a Lady.

1813

  • British Institution, London, 1813, no. 37.

1857

  • Pictures by Italian, Spanish, Flemish, Dutch, French and English Masters, British Institution, London, 1857, no. 139.

1880

  • Works by the Old Masters, and by Deceased Masters of the British School. Winter Exhibition, Royal Academy of Arts, London, 1880, no. 135.

1904

  • Tenth Annual Exhibiton on Behalf of the Artists' General Benevolent Institution, Thos. Agnew & Sons, Ltd., London, 1904, no. 11.

1930

  • Sixteen Masterpieces, M. Knoedler & Co., Inc., New York, 1930, no. 5, repro.

Bibliography

1782

  • Morning Herald, 2 May 1782.

  • St. James's Chronicle, 30 April 1782.

1865

  • Leslie, Charles Robert and Tom Talylor. Life and Times of Sir Joshua Reynolds. 2 vols. London, 1865: 2:343, 361.

1899

  • Graves, Algernon and William Vine Cronin. A History of the Works of Sir Joshua Reynolds. 4 vols. London, 1899-1901: 1:134, 188-189; 4:1285, 1547.

1900

  • Armstrong, Sir Walter. Sir Joshua Reynolds. London, 1900: 200.

1930

  • Valentiner, Wilhelm R., ed. Unknown Masterpieces in Public and Private Collections. London, 1930: n.p., pl. 93.

1941

  • Preliminary Catalogue of Paintings and Sculpture. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1941: 167, no. 97.

  • Waterhouse, Sir Ellis. Reynolds. London, 1941: 74, pl. 230.

1942

  • Book of Illustrations. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1942: 241, repro. 17.

1949

  • Paintings and Sculpture from the Mellon Collection. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1949 (reprinted 1953 and 1958): 108, repro.

1963

  • Walker, John. National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C. New York, 1963 (reprinted 1964 in French, German, and Spanish): 319, repro.

1965

  • Summary Catalogue of European Paintings and Sculpture. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1965: 113.

1968

  • National Gallery of Art. European Paintings and Sculpture, Illustrations. Washington, 1968: 101, repro.

1975

  • European Paintings: An Illustrated Summary Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1975: 302, repro.

  • Walker, John. National Gallery of Art, Washington. New York, 1975: no. 506, color repro.

1984

  • Walker, John. National Gallery of Art, Washington. Rev. ed. New York, 1984: 361, no. 504, color repro.

1985

  • European Paintings: An Illustrated Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1985: 348, repro.

1992

  • Hayes, John. British Paintings of the Sixteenth through Nineteenth Centuries. The Collections of the National Gallery of Art Systematic Catalogue. Washington, D.C., 1992: 220-221, repro. 221.

Wikidata ID

Q20178950

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