Lucy Sneyd (Later Mrs Grove) (1748–1789) (?)

Reynolds painted Lucy Sneyd around 1756, a female portrait from the early post-Italian period when he was systematically applying the lessons of his Continental study to English commissions. The Sneyd family of Staffordshire were county gentry with connections to the pottery-making families of the Potteries region; Lucy Sneyd later married Robert Grove, making her portrait a record of the young woman before her marriage rather than a public document of established married status. Reynolds's female portraits of the mid-1750s demonstrate the rapid evolution of his approach following his return from Italy in 1752: successive canvases show increasing confidence in composition and a growing sophistication in the handling of tone and colour derived from his Italian study. The Holburne Museum in Bath holds the canvas as part of a collection that documents Georgian Bath's role as a social centre of the English upper classes, whose seasonal gatherings in the spa city provided Reynolds with significant portrait commissions alongside his London work.

The portrait is rendered with experimental pigments that characterizes Joshua Reynolds's best work. Oil on canvas provides a rich ground for the subtle gradations of flesh tone and the textural contrasts between skin, fabric, and background that give the image its convincing presence.