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Mrs. Ralph Izard (Alice De Lancey, 1746/47–1832)
Thomas Gainsborough·1747
Historical Context
Mrs. Ralph Izard (Alice De Lancey, 1746/47–1832), painted in 1747, is an early portrait from Gainsborough’s Suffolk years. The sitter was the daughter of a prominent colonial American family, the De Lanceys of New York. This early work shows the young Gainsborough developing his portrait skills in the provincial setting of East Anglia, where the local gentry provided a steady if modest clientele. The painting predates Gainsborough’s move to Bath and the dramatic expansion of his clientele that followed. The Met’s holding represents an important example of Gainsborough’s early portraiture and its connections to colonial American society.
Technical Analysis
The early portrait shows a relatively tight handling compared to the mature style. The landscape setting, typical of Gainsborough's Ipswich period small-scale portraits, reveals his natural affinity for combining figure and landscape in an integrated composition.
Look Closer
- ◆Look at the relatively early handling — the Suffolk period portrait showing Gainsborough's still-developing style, the landscape setting looser than his later mature work but already his instinctive choice.
- ◆Notice the landscape background connecting the American colonial sitter to English countryside — the incongruity of placing an American subject in a clearly English landscape revealing Gainsborough's habitual setting.
- ◆Observe the direct quality of the early portrait — the honest, relatively unembellished rendering of the sitter without the sophisticated atmospheric virtuosity of his later Bath work.
- ◆Find the specific quality of the Suffolk period's coloring — warmer earth tones and less silvery refinement than the Bath portraits, reflecting the regional tradition Gainsborough was working within.
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