Maria Linley

Maria Linley (1763-84) was the third daughter of Thomas Linley the elder (see Gainsborough DPG140). She was trained as a singer by her father and showed the greatest talent among the Linley girls; she performed in the Drury Lane oratorios and in concerts from 1776 until her early death in 1784. An inscription on a piece of paper, verso, almost certainly taken from the original backing, appears in Lawrence's hand, so DPG475 is probably one of the pastel portraits the young Lawrence executed at Bath where he practised from before c.1779 to 1787. This portrait may have then been taken on one of Maria's visits to her grandparents in Bath; it was during one such visits, in September 1784, that Maria's promising career ended tragically when she was 'carried away' by 'brain fever', aged 21.