The Honourable Mrs Thomas Graham (1757–1792) (after Thomas Gainsborough)

This copy after Thomas Gainsborough's celebrated portrait of Mrs Graham demonstrates Maclise's respect for the eighteenth-century British portrait tradition and his willingness to engage with Old Master copying as a professional practice. Copying celebrated portraits served multiple functions: as studies of composition and technique, as demonstrations of mastery through comparison with established models, and as marketable products for collectors who wanted access to famous images they could not acquire in original. Gainsborough's Mrs Graham was among the most celebrated British portraits, and Maclise's copy acknowledged its canonical status while demonstrating his own technical abilities through the comparison it invited.

The copy translates Gainsborough's fluid brushwork into Maclise's more precise idiom, maintaining the original's graceful composition while reflecting the Victorian artist's sharper, more defined technique.