European Art and Old Masters

Note

The eldest daughter of George Carpenter, 1st Earl of Tyrconnel, Lady Almeria Carpenter (1752-1809) was lady-in-waiting to Maria Walpole, the wife of Prince William Henry, 1st Duke of Gloucester and Edinburgh, younger brother of King George III. Described by Sir Nathaniel Wraxall as "one of the most beautiful women of her time," Carpenter soon attracted the attention of her employer's husband and became his mistess by the early 1780s, later giving him a daughter.

Although Cosway is primarily remembered for his detailed work as a miniaturist, the present work proves the artist's accomplished skills in executing life-like portraits. With its feathery touch, pearlescent tones and slight idealization of the sitter (all at play here), Cosway became one of the leading portraitists of the Regency era. He may have been asked to paint the present portrait of Lady Carpenter at the request of his famous patron, the Prince of Wales (the future King George IV), who Cosway painted in 1780 before becoming his official Painter in 1785.