Portrait of a Young Woman, Called Miss Sparrow
1770s
Medium
Oil on canvas
Dimensions
30 1/8 x 24 7/8 in. (76.5 x 63.2 cm)
Classification
Paintings
Department
European Paintings
Museum
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Credit
Mr. and Mrs. Isaac D. Fletcher Collection, Bequest of Isaac D. Fletcher, 1917
Accession Number
17.120.224
Tags
Art Historical Context
Thomas Gainsborough's *Portrait of a Young Woman Called Miss Sparrow* (1770s) captures the elegance of 18th-century British society a quintessential oil-on-canvas portrait. Measuring 30 1/8 x 24 7/8 inches, this intimate work from the Metropolitan Museum of Art's European Paintings collection showcases Gainsborough's mastery as a leading Rococo portraitist. Though the sitter's identity is traditionally linked to "Miss Sparrow," her poised gaze and soft features evoke the refined world of Georgian England's upper class, where such portraits served as status symbols and personal mementos. Gains...
About the Artist
Thomas Gainsborough · 1727–1788
Thomas Gainsborough was born on 14 May 1727 in Sudbury, Suffolk, the youngest of nine children to wool dealer John Gainsborough and his wife Mary. Demonstrating prodigious talent from childhood, he sketched landscapes in the local woods and fields, fostering his lifelong passion for the genre. At age thirteen, he moved to London, where he trained under the French engraver and illustrator Hubert-Fr...