Irish Arts Review

Reynolds' Irish beautiesAuthor(s): John ColemanSource: Irish Arts Review (2002-), Vol. 27, No. 2 (SUMMER (JUNE - AUGUST 2010)), pp. 94-99Published by: Irish Arts ReviewStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/27821397 .

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PAINTING REYNOLDS' IRISH BEAUTIES

Reynolds'

Irish

beauties John Coleman discusses Joshua Reynolds' mastery of the aspirational social portrait as seen in this selection

of celebrated beauties from the 18th century

Among the most magnificent portraits painted by Sir Joshua

Reynolds (1723-92) are those of leading aristocratic Irish

women. Displayed at fashionable Royal Academy Exhibitions in

London and published as engravings, they promoted artist and sitters -

the 'celebrities' of the age.

Reynolds was the most successful portrait painter in Britain in the

later half of the 18 th century Favoured by the aristocracy, gentry and lit

erary and theatrical circles, he developed a grand style of portraiture

designed to raise the status of the genre to that of history painting.

Crucially, he could capture a likeness while flattering the sitter.

Although he never visited Ireland, Reynolds painted portraits of Irish

aristocrats and public figures, and their wives. He also painted beautiful

Irish women whose adult lives were spent in the English aristocratic world.

In an age of social climbing par excellence membership of the peerage was

the highest aspiration and new peerages were created and promotions

arranged from baron to viscount to earl. To become a marquess took gen

erations and these were never more than about thirty dukes: Before the ele

vation of the Earl of Kildare to the Dukedom of Leinster there had been

none in the Irish peerage since the time of the great Duke of Ormond.

To have one's portrait painted by Reynolds was to signify social ambi

tion and participation in a culture where knowledge of Classical art was

a prerequisite. The ideals of female beauty were the Classical statues of

ancient Greece and Rome. This article illustrates a selection of Reynolds'

Irish female portraits and examines them in the light of the intentions

of the artist and the lives of the women depicted.

Emily, Duchess of Leinster (1731-1814) and her sister Lady Louisa

Conolly were the grandest of English aristocrats who married the most

important Irish peer and the richest landowner in the coun

try. Emily had married James Fitzgerald, 19th Earl of Kildare, 1 JOSHUA REYNOLDS (1723-92] the later 1st Duke of Leinster, in 1747. This portrait (Fig 5) was

montgomery sisters -three ladies commissioned together with one of her husband to hang in adorning a term of hymen 1773 oil on Leinster House.1 According to Reynolds she was thought the canvas 233.5x295cm ?T?te, London 2010 handsomest woman in England which he attributed not so

IRISH ARTS REVIEW I SUMMER 2010

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PAINTING REYNOLDS' IRISH BEAUTIES

1

much to her looks but to a sweetness of expression which he found dif

ficult to capture. Lady Emily Lennox was the second daughter of the 2nd

Duke of Richmond, grandson of King Charles II and his mistress Louise

de Kerroulle. Emily, an avid reader, is depicted with a book in her left

hand and leaning her elbow on another. She read Rousseau and was

an important influence on her son Lord Edward Fitzgerald. Emily is

portrayed in a formal pose wearing a lace veil and court dress. Her

costume is draped with strings of pearls.2 Reynolds was famous for

borrowing from the work of his predecessors and derives setting,

'tender languishment' of the pose, expression of the eyes and even

details of the costume from an engraving after a portrait of Emily's

great-grandmother Louise de Keroulle by Sir Peter Lely (1618-80).3

Emily must have been pleased with the result as she sat for two further

portraits in 1774 and 1779. In 1764 her sister Louisa had her portrait

painted (Fig 3), in a generalised Classical gown favoured by Reynolds, for the Gallery at Casdetown (the original now in The Fogg Museum,

Harvard). The centrepiece of Louisa's Print Room at Casdetown is an

engraving of Reynolds' portrait of another sister, Lady Sarah, offering sac

rifices to the graces (the pamting (1762) is in The Art Institute of Chicago). The gorgeous Gunnings, Elizabeth (1733-1790)(Fig 4) and her sis

ter Maria (1732-1760) were the daughters of Colonel John Gunning

(d. 1767) and his wife Hon. Bridget Bourke (d.l770).4 Their mother was daughter of Theobald, 6th Viscount Mayo, a direct descendant of

Grace O'Malley (Granuaile).sThey were brought up in the Abbey quar ter of Roscommon town or on their father's small estate at nearby Castle

Coote. There is a good deal of romance attaching to them which has

more than a hint of poetic licence. Growing up in a modest thatched

cottage, their beauty was said to have arisen from bathing their faces in

a local St Bridget's well. Their mother engineered their presentation at

the court of the Lord Lieutenant in Dublin - the impoverished pair were

said to have arrived in borrowed theatrical costume.

With a pension of ?150 a year secured from the Lord Lieutenant their

mother moved them to London where in June 1851 Horace Walpole

noticed the 'Hibernian Sisters' -'Two Irish girls of no fortune, who make

more noise than any of their predecessors since the days of Helen, and

are declared the handsomest women alive'.6 They combined beauty with

an endearing naive charm. Newspapers chronicled their every movement

and 6,000 turned out at the fashionable Vauxhall Gardens when it was

rumoured they would be there. Samuel Richardson, author of Pamela, pre

dicted that the 'show girl sisters possessing neither sense nor fortune' but

'hunting for husbands far above their station' would either end with 'a

rich protector or a poor husband.' Both proved Richardson wrong, and

James 6th Duke of Hamilton (1724-58) married Elizabeth within a

month of seeing her at the Opera house ball in April 1751, late at night with a bed curtain ring for a wedding ring.7 While handsome and

wealthy, Hamilton was a notorious gambler and drinker and was dead by

1758, leaving her with three children. In March the following year she

married Colonel John Campbell (1723-81), later 5th Duke of Argyle. Elizabeth's portrait was commissioned by the Duke of Hamilton

shortly before his death in 1758 and for long hung at Hamilton Palace

(Fig 4). One of Reynolds' first 'exhibition' pictures, it was shown at the

Society of Artists in London, the precursor of the Royal Academy in April 1760. Ever a shrewd self-publicist Reynolds knew that Elizabeth's cele

brated beauty would draw attention to his work. Elizabeth was tall,

graceful, of reserved character and with a sweet nature. In the portrait

her soft blue eyes are cast down and her hair is informally arranged. She

appears to shrug off her red velvet and ermine coronation robes which

she draws back with her left hand from a simple white muslin dress -

reminiscent of Classical Greek or Roman sculpture. Oliver Goldsmith

was struck by her 'faultless form'. She leans on a plynth carved with a

depiction of Paris, who in Classical myth chooses Venus from among the

three goddesses. There are doves on the right, also symbolic of Venus,

2 VISCOUNTESS CROSBIE (LADY DIANA SACKVILLE11777 oil on canvas 2o6xU5cm ?The Huntington Library, Art Collections, and Botanical Gardens

3 LADY LOUISA CONOLLY (1743-1821) after Joshua Reynolds (1723-1792). Castletown, Co Kildare. Courtesy OPW; Photo ?David Davison

U ELIZABETH GUNNING, DUCHESS OF HAMILTON AND DUCHESS OF ARGYLL 1760 oil on canvas 238.5xU7.5cm. (Lady Lever Art Gallery) ?National Museums Liverpool

5 EMILY, DUCHESS OF LEINSTER 1753-5 oil on canvas 127x100cm. Private Collection

96 IRISH ARTS REVIEW I SUMMER 2010

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and perhaps a reference to her living and dead husbands. Later in life,

after twenty-three years as lady-in-waiting to Queen Charlotte she was

made a peeress as Baroness Hamilton - a rare distinction for a woman

and a remarkable journey from a cottage in Roscommon.

The Montgomery sisters had a less precarious but socially more mod

est background to the Gunnings. Reynolds' triple portrait (Fig 1) was

painted in 1773, exhibited at the RA in 1774 and Thomas Watson's

engraving was published in 1776. The sisters are depicted as the three

daughters of Zeus adorning a bust of Hymen, the god of marriage, with

garlands of flowers. It is in the grand style Reynolds described as 'artifi

cial in the highest degree; it presupposes in the spectator, a cultivated and

prepared artful state of mind'.8 The picture was commissioned by Luke

Gardiner MP (1748-98), the well-known Dublin property developer

ELIZABETH WAS TALL, GRACEFUL, OF RESERVED CHARACTER AND WITH A SWEET NATURE

whose grandfather had started life as a footman, to mark his marriage to

Elizabeth (1751-83) (centre), one of the Scottish-born Montgomery sis

ters.9 Their mother Hannah was a daughter of Alexander Tomkins of

Prehen, Co Derry Luke was made baron in 1789 and Viscount Mount joy

in 1795. This is a dynastic piece. One sister, Anne (1752-1819), had

already married the Lord Lieutenant, Viscount Townshend in 1773 and

Barbara (1738-1805) was to marry Hon. John Beresford. Luke wrote to

Reynolds urging him to use his 'genius and poetic invention' to 'convey

to posterity' the beauty of the sisters. The sisters discussed with the

painter details of composition and subject and it is likely that the painting

?M

"^^^^^^^^^ Dublin while his father, the 1st

Duke of Dorset, was Lord Lieutenant and, following a controversial mil

itary career, was the Secretary of State for the Colonies who lost

America. The portrait was painted in the year of her marriage in 1777,

exhibited at the RA and engraved in 1779.The grand full-length portrait shows a haughty young woman, her powdered brown hair elaborately

coiffed with ribbons and strings of pearls, wearing an ivory toned silk

dress, trimmed in gold braid. An appearance of movement is conveyed

by windblown hair and one foot stepping forward. The picture was

guaranteed to impress the visitor to Ardfert Abbey in Kerry. In Diana's

smirking face Reynolds may have captured something of her character

as she may not have been the perfect prize. A contemporary, Lady Louisa

SUMMER 2010 I IRISH ARTS REVIEW 97

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Stuart, wrote: ' when unmarried she was conceited and disagreeable...

on marriage she became a most disapated [sic] fine lady, flirting, gam

bling ...In truth, I suppose she was unusually silly'.

Nothing illustrates Reynolds' remarkable capacity to adapt to chang

ing fashion than the relaxed informality of his portraits of Lavinia

Bingham (Fig 7) and Lady Elizabeth Foster (Fig 6).These women, both

born in Ireland, lead different but interlinking lives in the world of the

upper reaches of the English aristocracy.

Lavinia Bingham (1762-1831) was born in Casdebar, eldest daughter of

Sir Charles Bingham, 6th Baronet, a member of Dr Johnson's club, who

was made baron in 1776 and Earl of Lucan in 1795.10 In April 1780 Lavinia

married George John Spencer (1758-1834), later 2nd Earl Spencer

(1783).11 Pretty with fair hair and blue eyes, she was talkative and intelli

gent. He was said to be out of his senses over her. She excelled at painting,

was musical and had travelled with her parents in Italy. The portrait was

painted in 1785-6 for her mother-in-law the dowager Lady Spencer, exhib

ited at the RA in 1786 and engraved by Francesco Bartolozzi in 1787.12

Lavinia wears a wide-brimmed straw hat, decorated with a blue satin

ribbon, casting a shadow over her eyes. Reynolds was a great admirer of

Rubens and the large-brimmed hat recalls his Chapeau de Paille in the

London National Gallery The simplicity of the dress echoes 18th-cen

tury fashion for dressing as shepherdesses and her contemporary Queen

Marie Antoinette as a dairy maid. Lavinia's character did not improve

with age and in 1810 her husband s sister the Countess of Bessborough

98 IRISH ARTS REVIEW I SUMMER 2010

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said she was 'clever, but of coarse mind and expression and highly crit

ical ... Nothing escapes: character, understanding, opinions, dress, per

son, age, infirmity - all fall equally under [her] scalping knife.'14

The portrait of Lady Elizabeth Foster (1759-1824) commissioned by William, 5th Duke of Devonshire (1748-1811), was painted in 1787,

engraved by Bartolozzi the same year and exhibited at the RA in 1788.

There is a startling directness and modernity about this portrait of Lady

Elizabeth wearing a simple white dress with pink ribbon and a dark

blue sash (Fig 6). Elizabeth, a daughter of Frederick Augustus Hervey, Bishop of Derry

and 4th Earl of Bristol, married Irish MP John Thomas Foster in 1776

(not to be confused with Speaker Foster).They separated in 1781 after

he is said to have seduced her maid. The twenty-three-year-old mother

of-two was short and slim with a coquettish charm. Edward Gibbon

(author of The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire) said of her that 'no man

could withstand her' and 'if she chose to beckon the Lord Chancellor

from the woolsack in full sight of the world, he could not resist obedi

ence'. In 1782, while living in Bath with a Methodist aunt, she met the

Duke of Devonshire and his wife Georgiana, daughter of the 1 st Earl

'WHEN UNMARRIED SHE WAS CONCEITED AND DISAGREEABLE... ON MARRIAGE SHE BECAME A MOST DISAPATED [SIC] FINE LADY, FLIRTING, GAMBLING ..."

Spencer and sister-in-law of Lavinia Bingham. She quickly became an

indispensable part of their lives. Lady Spencer and Lavinia saw Lady

Betty as a serious threat to the couple's marriage - Lavinia dubbed her

'a most dangerous devil'. They went on to live in a m?nage a trois at

Devonshire House in London and Chatsworth, a liaison delineated in

Amanda Foreman's Georgiana Duchess of Devonshire (London, 1998) and in

the film Duchess. Despite giving birth to two children by the Duke in

1785 and 1788, Lady Elizabeth remained best friend to Georgiana and

following her death, she married the Duke in 1809.

The portrait of Emily, Duchess of Leinster shows her as a court beauty.

Diana, Viscountess Crosbie is a trophy wife. Lady Louisa Conolly,

Elizabeth Gunning and the Montgomery sisters have had their beauty

enhanced by emblematic poses and Classical dress and been trans

formed into works of Classical art. The visitor to Leinster House,

Castle town, Ardfert Abbey or Ranger's House saw these images as an

PAINTING REYNOLDS' IRISH BEAUTIES

6 LADY ELIZABETH FOSTER 1787 oil on canvas 7 THE COUNTESS SPENCER, LAVINIA BINGHAM, 74x62cm ?Devonshire Collection, Chatsworth. 1786 oil on canvas 75x62cm. Reproduced by permission of the Chatsworth From the Collection at Althorp Settlement Trustees

integral part of the world in which their owners lived. All the portraits

are images for public consumption whether at the Royal Academy, in

their great houses or reproduced as engravings. Even the less formal

images of Lavinia, Countess Spencer or Lady Elizabeth Foster are for

public view, though here simply for their beauty.

Every age puts a premium on the display of female beauty; seeing some of Reynolds' Irish beauties together in these pages and knowing

something of their lives gives us a glimpse into the aspirational world

of the 18 th century Acknowledgements: The attendant staff at the Lady Lever Gallery were most helpful when I visited this year. Thanks to Betty Conlon for pointing out that the 'Gorgeous

Gunnings' have not been forgotten west of the Shannon.

John Coleman has previously contributed articles to Irish Arts Review, Apollo and Country Life.

1 John Coleman, 'Evidence for the collecting and display of paintings in mid eighteenth century Ireland', Bulletin of the Irish Georgian Society, vol. xxxvi, 1994, pp. 48-62.

2 Mairead Dunlevy, Dress in Ireland, London. 1989, pp. 91-2. 3 Andrew Wilton, The Swagger Portrait: Grand Manner Portraiture in Britain from Van

Dyck to Augustus John 1630-1930, London, 1992, p. 86. Michael Wenzel, 'The Windsor Beauties by Sir Peter Lely', Journal of the History of Collections, 2002, M (2). pp. 205

213. There is an engraving of c. 1780 by Paul von Somer after the Lely portrait in the

London National Portrait Gallery (D 13151). There is a version of the oil in the Getty Museum in California.

4 Horace Bleakley, The Story of a Beautiful Duchess: Being an Account of the Life and Times of Elizabeth Gunning, Duchess of Hamilton and Argyle, London, 1907. There were three further sisters and a brother. Robert W. Jones, "Such Strange Unwonted

Softness to Excuse': Judgment and Indulgence in Sir Joshua Reynolds's Portrait of

Elizabeth Gunning, Duchess of Hamilton and Argyll", The Oxford Art Journal, 18:1,1995,

pp. 29-43.

5 George Edward Cockayne, The Complete Peerage, 1932, Vol. VIII, p. 604.

6 Thompson Willing. Some Old Time Beauties, Boston, 1895. 7 Bleakley, 1907, p. 38. Maria became Countess of Coventry but died tragically young, sup

posedly from a surfeit of lead-based make-up, but possibly of consumption. 8 Sir Joshua Reynolds, Discourses on Art, London, 1975, p. 277. 9 John Coleman. 'Luke Gardiner', Irish Arts Review Yearbook. Vol. 15.1999. pp.161-168. A

small oval copy of the triple portrait is set into the wall of the dining room at Abbeyville, built by James Gandon for John Beresford. husband of Barbara Montgomery.

10 James Boswell. Life of Johnson, Oxford, 1980. p. 339. Sir Charles Bingham's grandfa ther was a brother of Patrick Sarsfield. 1st Earl of Lucan of the first creation.

11 Amanda Foreman, Georgiana Duchess of Devonshire, London. 1999, p. 73.

12 Lavinia had already sat for Reynolds for a portrait still at Althorp (1781 ) and another with

her young son now in the Huntington Museum and Art Gallery in California (1783). 13 Willing, p. 26. 14 Brian Fothergill, The Mitred Earl, London. 1974.

SUMMER 2010 I IRISH ARTS REVIEW 99

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