Elizabeth Prowse (1712–1780)

Elizabeth Prowse, painted around 1760 at the very beginning of Gainsborough's Bath establishment and now at Gainsborough's House in Sudbury, represents the Suffolk connections he maintained even as Bath transformed his ambitions and style. The Prowse family were established Suffolk gentry, and the portrait reflects the continuing patronage from his original social base even after he had moved to fashionable Bath. By 1760 Gainsborough had absorbed the Van Dyck tradition — the Flemish master's aristocratic female portraits were the primary touchstones for any British painter seeking to capture feminine elegance — but he was doing so on his own terms rather than through academic imitation. Van Dyck's women were grand, remote, and iconic; Gainsborough's are warmer, more specific in their individual observation, and less freighted with historical precedent. Elizabeth Prowse's portrait at 75 by 63 centimeters belongs to the half-length format appropriate for a Suffolk gentlewoman whose social position was comfortable but not grand enough to justify the full-length treatment Gainsborough was increasingly deploying for his Bath aristocratic clientele. The portrait's combination of formal competence and personal warmth is characteristic of commissions from people he knew personally rather than purely professionally.

The portrait captures a woman of character and intelligence rather than mere social status. Gainsborough's handling of the face is warm and observant, with the eyes particularly well-painted to convey the sitter's lively mind. The costume is treated with the developing fluency of his transitional period.