Mrs. Robert Brudenell

Reynolds painted Mrs. Robert Brudenell around 1760, an early portrait from the period when he was consolidating the reputation he had built since his return from Italy in 1752. The Brudenell family were connected to the Earls of Cardigan, one of the more prominent Northamptonshire aristocratic dynasties, and the commission reflects the steady expansion of Reynolds's patronage network beyond his original Devon connections into the wider English county establishment. Reynolds's portraits of this period show the decisive influence of his Italian study in their warm colouring and compositional confidence, yet also the specifically English quality that distinguished his work from a merely imitative application of Continental lessons. The challenge Reynolds set himself was precisely this synthesis: to demonstrate that Italian grandeur and English directness could be combined rather than traded off against each other. The Fogg Museum at Harvard's holding of the canvas reflects the American university museum collections' significant accumulation of Reynolds's works through the transatlantic art trade, making Harvard's representation of British eighteenth-century painting among the finest outside Britain.

Reynolds's warm palette and flowing handling create an image of refined feminine beauty.