Lady Elizabeth Hamilton
Medium
oil on canvas
Dimensions
overall: 117 x 84 cm (46 1/16 x 33 1/16 in.)
Classification
Painting
Department
CAB
Museum
National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.
Credit
Widener Collection
Accession Number
1942.9.75
Art Historical Context
Step into the elegant world of 18th-century British portrait with *Lady Elizabeth Hamilton*, painted by Sir Joshua Reynolds in 1758. Reynolds, one of England's foremost artists and founder of the Royal Academy of Arts, masterfully captured the sitter—a young aristocratic lady—in this oil on canvas, measuring 117 x 84 cm. Housed in the National Gallery of Art's Wid Collection, the work exemplifies Reynolds' rise to prominence during the Georgian era, when portraiture served as a vital tool for displaying social status and refinement. Reynolds employed his signature Grand Manner style, blending...
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...