Mrs. Robert Brudenell

Reynolds painted Mrs. Robert Brudenell around 1760, an early portrait from the period when he was establishing himself as London's leading portrait painter following his return from Italy in 1752. The painting demonstrates Reynolds's distinctive approach: combining the classical grandeur he had absorbed in Rome with the naturalness of English portraiture. Now in the Fogg Museum at Harvard, the portrait represents American university collections' significant holdings of Reynolds's work, acquired through the active transatlantic art market of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.

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