Portrait of Lady Selina Meade (1797–1872), half-length, in an ivory satin dress, with the spire of St. Stephen’s Cathedral, Vienna, beyond

Lawrence painted Lady Selina Meade around 1819 during his celebrated Grand Tour of European courts undertaken at George IV's direction to collect portraits of the Allied leaders for the Waterloo Chamber at Windsor Castle. The tour took him through Paris, Rome, Vienna, and Aix-la-Chapelle, and while his primary mission was to portray the statesmen and monarchs who had defeated Napoleon, he also painted numerous private commissions from the European aristocracy encountered along the way. Lady Selina Meade was a member of the Anglo-Irish Meade family connected to the Clanwilliam earldom, encountered in Vienna where her portrait includes the distinctive spire of St Stephen's Cathedral as a specific documentary marker of the Viennese setting. The portrait belongs to the series of European works from Lawrence's tour that combined political documentation with fashionable portraiture in a way that blurred the distinction between official commission and private practice. The tour was artistically productive but financially complicated, with Lawrence's perpetual debts driving him to accept as many private commissions as his schedule allowed alongside the official Waterloo Chamber work.

The ivory satin dress is rendered with Lawrence's characteristic mastery of fabric, the cool white tones of the silk creating a striking contrast with the warmer flesh tones. The inclusion of the Vienna cityscape adds topographical interest and locates the portrait within a specific moment in European diplomatic history.