Anne Dashwood (1743–1830), Later Countess of Galloway
Medium
Oil on canvas
Dimensions
52 1/2 x 46 3/4 in. (133.4 x 118.7 cm), with strip of 7 1/8 in. (18.1 cm) folded over the top of the stretcher
Classification
Paintings
Department
European Paintings
Museum
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Credit
Gift of Lillian S. Timken, 1950
Accession Number
50.238.2
Tags
Art Historical Context
Sir Joshua Reynolds, one of Britain's foremost portrait painters and founding president of the Royal Academy, captured Anne Dashwood in 1764 when she was about 21 years old. This elegant oil-on-canvas portrait depicts the future Countess of Galloway, a of the prominent Dashwood family, at the height of Georgian high society. Reynolds' mastery of the Grand Manner—drawing from Venetian Renaissance masters like Titian—elevates her image with idealized features, rich drapery, and a sense of poised nobility, reflecting the era's emphasis on and refinement. Painted at 52½ x 46¾ inches (with an intr...
About the Artist
Sir Joshua Reynolds · 1723–1792
Sir Joshua Reynolds (1723–1792) was a British painter who became the dominant figure in eighteenth-century British art and the first president of the Royal Academy of Arts. Born in Plympton, Devon, he studied under the portrait painter Thomas Hudson in London, and a transformative visit to Italy (1749–52) — where he studied the Old Masters, particularly the Venetian colorists and Michelangelo — sh...