The Ladies Waldegrave

Reynolds's The Ladies Waldegrave from 1780, in the National Galleries of Scotland, depicts the three daughters of Maria Walpole, Countess Waldegrave — who was herself the illegitimate daughter of Edward Walpole and thus the great-niece of Horace Walpole, whose patronage helped bring the painting about. The three sisters — Laura, Maria, and Horatia — are shown winding silk and embroidering at a table, an activity that Reynolds derived from ancient cameos and from Vermeer's tradition of domestic female labor transformed into allegory of diligence and feminine accomplishment. The Scottish National Gallery's holding of this quintessentially English painting reflects the geographic dispersal of major Reynolds works through the British aristocracy, many of whose most important portraits entered Scottish collections through inheritance and marriage. Horace Walpole, who admired the painting greatly, complained only that Reynolds had painted his great-nieces too small — a criticism that acknowledged the work's ambition in placing these young women in the tradition of classical relief sculpture.

Reynolds arranges the three women in an elegantly interconnected composition, their activities creating visual links between the figures. The cool whites and pale tones of their dresses, set against a warm background, demonstrate his sophisticated management of color harmony in group portraiture.