Hester, Countess of Sussex, and Her Daughter, Lady Barbara Yelverton
Artist: Thomas Gainsborough (British, 1727-1788)
Date: 1771
Dimensions:
Painting: 89 1/4 × 60 1/4 in. (226.7 × 153 cm)
Frame: 104 × 74 3/4 × 4 1/4 in. (264.2 × 189.9 × 10.8 cm)
Medium: oil on canvas
Classification: Paintings
Credit Line: Purchased with funds from the Libbey Endowment, Gift of Edward Drummond Libbey, and with funds from the Florence Scott Libbey Bequest in Memory of her Father, Maurice A. Scott
Object number: 1984.20
Label Text:First exhibited in 1771 at the Royal Academy in London, this rare double portrait by Thomas Gainsborough was painted in the fashionable resort town of Bath. It depicts the wife and daughter of Henry Yelverton, Earl of Sussex. Hester (1728–1777) had held the position of Lady of the Bedchamber to King George II’s three elder daughters. She sits before a tree, one hand to her cheek, the other clasping a barely visible broad-brimmed hat. Her only child, Barbara (1760–1781), stands beside her. The girl’s youth—about 10 or 11—is emphasized by the sprig in her hand and her dress of white muslin. The blue ribbons decorating her dress and bonnet are artfully echoed by the bow in her mother’s powdered hair.
With poetic grace Gainsborough conveys the bond between mother and daughter. The tenderness of the relationship makes the ensuing estrangement between them all the more tragic. At age 15 Barbara eloped with Edward Thoroton Gould, who had served only months previously in the British army at the Battles of Lexington and Concord during the American Revolution. The elopement provoked Barbara’s parents to disinherit her. She would have three children and die prior to her 21st birthday.
With poetic grace Gainsborough conveys the bond between mother and daughter. The tenderness of the relationship makes the ensuing estrangement between them all the more tragic. At age 15 Barbara eloped with Edward Thoroton Gould, who had served only months previously in the British army at the Battles of Lexington and Concord during the American Revolution. The elopement provoked Barbara’s parents to disinherit her. She would have three children and die prior to her 21st birthday.
On view
In Collection(s)