Portrait of a Lady

Following a long tradition of elegantly poised portraits, this painting encapsulates the favoured style of the mid-eighteenth century. We are given only a few clues to determine this sitter’s personality. Her gentle and refined nature is suggested by the restrained colour palette and her soft gaze. It is her dress that establishes her credentials. Beauty and purity are suggested by the strings of pearls on her bodice and, just visible, in her hair. The pearlescent light thrown out from the crumpled silk dress reinforces this sense of virtue. Demure yet highly fashionable, the style of the dress combines contemporary fashions, such as the laced stomacher, with historical details like the asymmetrically placed bows and pearl strings borrowed from seventeenth-century portraits. To be portrayed in a ‘Vandyke’ style dress such as this one was the ultimate fashion statement. This portrait was possibly painted as a pair with Portrait of a Man and, in both works, modernity and style are key.

When commissioning British society portrait painter Thomas Hudson (1701–79), the couple were embracing a popular trend. Producing over 4,000 portraits, Hudson turned portraiture into a thriving business based on a formulaic approach where he reused and reinvented poses, costumes and backdrops. This portrait is a prime example, using a graceful three-quarter length pose against a plain, and quickly finished, backdrop. To complete his portraits, Hudson worked closely with Joseph van Aken (1699–1749), a highly skilled and respected artist who specialised in painting fabrics, known as a ‘drapery man’. It was customary for Van Aken to choose the outfits for the portraits, often dictating the pose too. Van Aken’s expertise is clearly represented in this painting, with the dress closely following a drawing from his pattern book of draperies.