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Portrait of Anne, Viscountess Townsend, Later Marchioness Townshend
1779-1780
Artwork Viewer
Joshua Reynolds was the leading painter in
eighteenth-century England, founder of the modern British school and inventor
of a new form of grand manner portraiture suited to the tastes of a rising
imperial elite. His sitter here was raised in Dublin, where her father grew
rich supplying the English occupying army. She and her two sisters, famed for
their beauty, were known as the “Irish Graces.” At nineteen, she married George
Townshend, who had fought in Scotland and Canada before serving as Lord
Lieutenant of the Irish colony. She bore him six children and later held an
appointment in the retinue of Caroline, Princess of Wales.
Curator Emily Beeny and radio journalist Hana Baba on “Portrait of Anne, Viscountess Townsend”
Gallery 13
- Artist
- Sir Joshua Reynolds (1723-1792)
- Title
- Portrait of Anne, Viscountess Townsend, Later Marchioness Townshend
- Date
- 1779-1780
- Place of Creation
- England
- Object Type
- Painting
- Medium
- Oil on canvas
- Dimensions
- 95 x 58 in. (241.3 x 147.3 cm)
- Credit Line
- Roscoe and Margaret Oakes Collection
- Accession Number
- 75.2.13