portrait of a lady with flowers

This 1765 portrait of a lady with flowers depicts a fashionable Georgian woman in an informal setting that combines portraiture with floral still life. The flowers add a decorative element while carrying symbolic associations with beauty, femininity, and natural grace. Dance's portraits combined the formal conventions of Grand Manner portraiture with a cooler, more austere palette and sculptural figure treatment that reflected his years studying in Rome under the influence of Pompeo Batoni.

The portrait integrates the sitter with her floral setting, Dance rendering both the woman's features and the flowers with the careful observation and refined technique of his mature portrait practice.