_MET_DP162167.jpg&width=1200)
Mrs. Ralph Izard (Alice De Lancey, 1746/47–1832)
Thomas Gainsborough·1747
Historical Context
Mrs. Ralph Izard (Alice De Lancey), depicted in an oval format around 1747, is a very early portrait from Gainsborough's Suffolk years, when he was still building his practice among the provincial gentry of East Anglia. The De Lanceys were a prominent New York family with strong English connections, and Alice's presence in the Suffolk portrait market reflects the transatlantic social networks of the colonial upper class. The oval format and the soft, Rococo quality of the composition reflect Gainsborough's absorption of French and Flemish influences through his London training under Hubert Gravelot, a French draughtsman who worked extensively in England and transmitted the lightness and elegance of Watteau's circle to his English pupils. At this early stage of his career, before the Bath move transformed his clientele, Gainsborough was painting provincial families for modest fees, developing the technical fluency that would later serve a far grander commission roster. The Metropolitan Museum acquired the work as part of its representation of British portraiture's eighteenth-century development.
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.
_MET_DP162180.jpg&width=600)
