Portrait of a Lady. Oil painting by Sir Joshua Reynolds (PRA), late 18th century.

Bust length portrait of a lady in a low cut dress with an ermine mantle. The lady wears a choker of pearls and an ornament of pearls and lace in her hair.

Bequeathed by John Forster

Bequeathed by John Forster, 1876. John Forster (1812-1876), writer and literary adviser, was born in Newcastle upon Tyne, the second of four children of Robert Forster, butcher and Cattle dealer. Forster's uncle John enabled him to attend the Newcastle Royal Grammar School. In 1828, after a month at Jesus College, Cambridge he went to study law at University College, London. While he never practiced law, Forster developed a career publishing, becoming both drama and literary critic of The Examiner in 1833. Forster's contribution to nineteenth-century literary life was established through his friendships with figures including Lord Tennyson, Elizabeth Gaskell, Charlse Lamb, Robert Lamb and Charles Dickens. Forster represented Dickens on a number of negotiations with publishers and was executor of the author's will in 1870. His biography of The Life of Charles Dickens offers a fascinating account of the author. At his death in 1876, Forster left his manuscripts to what is now the Victoria and Albert Museum. The bequest also included 45 paintings from English and Continental artists, and a number of English engravings and drawings.

The entry in the Forster catalogue and a note on the object file says that the painting was originally in the collection of the artist Sir David Wilkie (1785-1841).

Historical significance: Sir Joshua Reynolds (1732-1792) worked predominantly as a portrait painter and was the first president of the Royal Academy (founded 1768). He was apprenticed in 1740 to the fashionable London portrait painter Thomas Hudson (1701-1779). From 1744 Reynolds began working in both London and Devon. He travelled to Italy with Augustus Keppel in 1750. Reynolds stayed mainly in Rome, studying the antique sculpture and old and modern masters there. These works would provide prototypes for his works for the rest of his career. By 1753 Reynolds had returned to London where his portrait of Keppel established his career. From 1769 in his lectures at the Royal Academy Reynolds developed his theory of the "Grand Manner", encouraging artists to learn from past examples of art and to work on morally elevating subjects. These ideas had been expressed by earlier artists, however, Reynolds was the first to deliver them in a clear synthesis. Although Reynolds encouraged artists to paint more highly regarded genres of paintings, ideally History, he remained a portrait painter. During the 1770s he developed within this genre "Fancy Pictures" creating sentimental representations of children. In 1784 he succeeded the artist Allan Ramsay (1713-1784) as portrait painter to King George III (1738-1820).

This bust length portrait is of an unidentified lady. The sitter is shown looking out at the viewer, turning her head slightly to the right. A slight halo of light around the head and shoulders of the sitter of F.32 reveal where the artist has painted up to the figure in the portrait. This also subtly illuminates the sitter to focus our attention on her. On looking at the portrait, the head appears to be the most finished part of the painting. This can be seen particularly with the way paint has been applied to depict the soft texture of the skin and the fall of light on the sitter’s eyes. In comparison to the head, the ermine mantle and pearl jewellery are painted in quite a sketchy manner. These parts of the portrait appear to be unfinished. They also appear to be by a different hand, suggesting that one of Reynolds’ studio assistants worked on the portrait.

This portrait is very similar in style to Reynolds' Young Woman in a Blue Dress (Private Collection; reproduced in Mannings and Postle, figure 87). In both these portraits the lady is placed in front of a dark neutral background, allowing us to focus on the sitter. Each figure wears her hair up with an ornament of pearls and ribbons on the right side of the crown of her head. The women also wear large pearl drop earrings and a choker of pearls that ties with ribbons matching those in the headdress, at the back of her neck. As with Young Woman in a Blue Dress, the top edge of the chemise of the sitter in F.32 can be seen below the low cut of her satin dress. Over this dress the figure wears a cape that is edged with ermine. The luxurious materials of silk and combined with the sitter’s jewellery conveys her wealth whilst also bringing an interesting combination of textures to the portrait.

In their catalogue Mannings and Postle date Young Woman in a Blue Dress to 1753-4. Considering the strong similarity in dress between the sitter of this portrait and that in the V&A it is likely that F.32 also dates to 1753-4. Reynolds had returned to England in 1753 from Italy. In the years immediately following his return to England he based himself in London to establish a career as a portrait painter. It is therefore likely that this painting dates from this period when the artist was beginning his career as a portrait artist in the capitol of England.


References:

Francois Boucher., A History of Costume in the West, London, 2004, pp. 291-299
Mannings, D. and Postle, M., Sir Joshua Reynolds: A Complete Catalogue of His Paintings, New Haven and London, 2000, II Volumes

F.32