Margaret, Countess of Blessington

Margaret, Countess of Blessington, painted by Lawrence around 1822 and now in the Wallace Collection, was one of the most celebrated women of Regency London — novelist, journalist, society hostess, and cultural entrepreneur whose Gore House salon attracted the era's most brilliant figures. Born Margaret Power in Tipperary, Ireland, her rise from a difficult early marriage through the death of a first husband, a second advantageous marriage, and eventual widowhood to become one of London's most influential literary figures represented a kind of social achievement available only to women of exceptional intelligence and social skill. Her salon at Gore House, Kensington, was frequented by Byron, Disraeli, Dickens, Wellington, and virtually every other significant figure of early Victorian cultural life — her position as both insider and observer gave her material for the novel and journalistic writing that supplemented the income that continued to evade financial stability. Lawrence's portrait captures her famous beauty and the commanding social presence that made her Gore House the most sought-after invitation in London; the Wallace Collection's comprehensive survey of European portraiture provides an appropriate context for a subject who was herself deeply embedded in the European aristocratic culture the Collection documents.

Lawrence lavishes his most brilliant technique on one of the great beauties of the Regency, with luminous flesh tones and a sumptuous treatment of dress fabric. The eyes are particularly animated, capturing the wit and intelligence that made Lady Blessington as famous for her conversation as for her beauty.