Portrait of Mrs William Fortescue (1733/34-1820), later Countess of Clermont

Reynolds painted Mrs. William Fortescue around 1761, a female portrait from the period when he was consolidating his position as London's leading portraitist following the critical success he had achieved since his return from Italy in 1752. The Fortescue family were prominent in Devon and Cornwall — Reynolds's home territory — and his retention of country-gentry patronage alongside his fashionable London clientele reflected his social intelligence as much as his artistic reputation. Reynolds's female portraits of this period draw on the example of French Rococo painters, particularly Greuze and Nattier, whom he had encountered in Paris and whose approach to female psychology offered a model distinct from the more formal English tradition descending from Kneller. The integration of French refinement with Italian compositional grandeur and English directness of characterization was Reynolds's particular achievement, and it produced a mode of female portraiture that remained definitive for the following generation. The National Gallery of Ireland's holding of the Fortescue canvas reflects the strong representation of Reynolds's work in Irish collections, the product of sustained Anglo-Irish aristocratic patronage throughout his career.

The portrait presents the sitter with Reynolds's characteristic warm palette and refined handling. The elegant composition demonstrates his mastery of the female portrait genre.