Narrator: Having your portrait painted by Sir Joshua Reynolds was a little like being featured on the cover of Vogue magazine. Not only could a Reynolds portrait dazzle your visitors at home – it would often also be exhibited at London’s Royal Academy of Art – where it was seen by all of high society.
This painting shows Anne, Viscountess Townsend, who grew up in Dublin, Ireland. Chief Curator Emily Beeny:
Emily Beeny: She was one of three sisters born into a family whose wealth came from provisioning the British occupying army. And she ultimately married the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, George Townsend, who was basically the official who presided over the British colony in Ireland.
Narrator: Known for creating flattering, glamorous images, Reynolds emphasizes Anne’s status and beauty. She leans on a stone pedestal carved with a scene from Greek mythology. It shows a prince judging a beauty contest between three goddesses.
Emily Beeny: What's interesting is that we really only see two of those three goddesses, so I think there's maybe some suggestion that the third goddess is the sitter herself.
Narrator: Classical education – and collecting pieces of ancient sculpture – were a big part of 18th century British aristocratic identity, and Reynolds also portrays Anne wearing a dress suggesting classical robes. Her velvet and ermine cape would be worn to a royal coronation. And family estates, a foundation of power in British society, are evoked by the sweeping landscape in the background.
Emily Beeny: The grand scale of it made this approach to portraiture very well suited to new rising classes in England, that were maybe moving from more mercantile backgrounds like that of the sitter's father, into the aristocratic elite, to which her husband belonged. So these are portraits for the socially ambitious as well.
A century and a half later, objects like this one also flattered the social aspirations of a new rising global elite, namely American millionaires of the Gilded Age.
Narrator: Portraits like this were avidly collected -
Emily Beeny: - especially by Californians of the early 20th century, whose fortunes were new and who were in the market for ancestors.
