Anna Maria Dashwood, later Marchioness of Ely
Thomas Lawrence·c. 1805
Historical Context
Lawrence's Anna Maria Dashwood, later Marchioness of Ely (c. 1805) depicts a young woman of aristocratic family with the romantic warmth and technical brilliance that made him the most fashionable portraitist of his generation. The Dashwood connection — to the distinguished Buckinghamshire family — gave the portrait social distinction alongside its artistic quality. Lawrence's ability to give his female subjects a quality of romantic aspiration — suggesting an inner life of feeling beyond the social performance of the portrait — reflected both his genuine sympathetic engagement with his sitters and his understanding of what his aristocratic clients wanted from a portrait.
Technical Analysis
Lawrence's handling of the face and hair demonstrates his exceptional ability with luminous flesh painting and flowing, natural hair. The eyes, Lawrence's particular strength, are rendered with striking depth and emotional intensity.
Look Closer
- ◆Notice Lawrence's treatment of the eyes — they are rendered with the striking depth and intensity that was his most celebrated technical achievement.
- ◆Look at the romantic warmth in the face: Lawrence gives Anna Maria a sense of inner emotional life rather than merely social presentation.
- ◆Observe the flowing hair: Lawrence painted hair with exceptional naturalism and movement, quite different from the formal arrangements of Reynolds's portraits.
- ◆Find the atmospheric background that dissolves the sitter's environment into warm, painterly suggestion.
Provenance
Presumably John Loftus, 2nd Marquess of Ely (died 1845), husband of the sitter; by descent to John Henry Loftus, 5th Marquess of Ely; his sale Christie’s, London, July 25, 1891, lot 68 for £241.10s to Agnew [price and buyer according to an annotated copy of the sale catalogue in the Rijksbureau voor Kunsthistorische Documentatie, The Hague, copy in curatorial file]; Thomas Agnew & Sons, London; sold to T. H. Ismay, June 2, 1892 [according to a letter from Gabriel M. Naughton, Agnew’s, to Malcolm Warner dated March 19, 1993, copy in curatorial file]; evidently Ismay sold it back to Agnew almost immediately, in July 1892 [according to Agnew stock book, no. 6529, located in the Getty Research Institute; copy in curatorial file, kindly provided by Derek Quezada]; sold by Agnew’s to R. Hall McCormick (died 1917), Chicago, September 20, 1892 [see stock book cited above]; his estate sale, American Art Galleries, New York, April 15, 1920, lot 62 for $18,000 to “Seaman, agent” [price and buyer according to an annotated copy of the sale catalogue in the Art Institute, copy in curatorial file]. Alice H. Brown (Mrs. Marshall Ludington Brown, formerly Mrs. Cyrus McCormick II; died 1950); given to the Art Institute from her estate, 1951 [according to the Committee on Painting and Sculpture meeting notes, April 19, 1951, copy in curatorial file].
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